


An Acceptable Risk

by JudoAly



Series: The Definition of Consent [6]
Category: Grey's Anatomy, Station 19 (TV)
Genre: Best Friends, Blackmail, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Gen, Love, M/M, Marriage, Mild S&M, Political Alliances, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pregnancy, Social Media, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:54:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 61,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23131285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JudoAly/pseuds/JudoAly
Summary: Chapter 13 updated as of 12/3!Next chapter in the fake season 4 as a sexy sequel toShoulda Woulda, Coulda,Summer Preview,PR Nightmare,To Have and To Hold, andQuickening.Brief summary in the notes.
Relationships: Andy Herrera/Robert Sullivan, Dean Miller/Margaret "Maggie" Pierce, Maya Bishop/Carina DeLuca, Meredith Grey/Andrew DeLuca, Miranda Bailey/Ben Warren, Travis Montgomery/Levi Schmitt, Victoria Hughes/David Mayhorn, Victoria Hughes/Lucas Ripley
Series: The Definition of Consent [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1363762
Comments: 622
Kudos: 129





	1. Week 17 - The One Without a Paper Trail

**Author's Note:**

> Acceptable risk refers to the level of human and property loss that can be tolerated by an individual, household, group, organization, community, region, state, or nation. In other words, it means those risks whose benefits are so great, that individuals or groups in society are willing to take or be subjected to the risk.
> 
> Super short summary - Vicley is 17 weeks pregnant with TRIPLETS - no one but Andy knows. Andy and Sullivan finally worked stuff out. Dean and Maggie are doing well. Jack and Francis are engaged. 
> 
> Long summary -  
> Vic/Ripley - secretly pregnant 17 weeks. Ripley is in therapy for being overprotective. Vic is becoming a paramedic and quietly studying to get her college degree.
> 
> Andy/Sullivan - back together at last - took an eternity to have an honest convo. Sullivan is Assistant to Chief of Operations and should be promoted to battalion chief. Andy starts out 30 weeks pregnant.
> 
> Maya/No-one - ended up with a gym membership instead of dating Declan. Gave the chief all sorts of access to Vic at work. Captain of S19
> 
> Jack/Francis - Still engaged to Francis, the new head of SFD PR. He struggles with PTSD. Francis struggles with cleaning up FitzPatricks way of running PR and people mocking how quickly they got engaged.
> 
> Dean/Maggie - Getting more serious?
> 
> Travis/Levi - Still dating but Levi is working alot.
> 
> Kat/David - Kat finished rookie year and is dating Mayhorn since the Vicley wedding.
> 
> Ben/Bailey - Ben appears sometimes on Medic One.
> 
> Meredith/Andrew - Meredith is good friends with Maya as they help navigate/control/instigate their friends' love lives. DeLuca still mostly colorless - doesn't appear biploar.
> 
> Ryan/Jenna - wedding is coming soon
> 
> Owen/Lincoln/Amelia/Teddy/Koracick - the drama lives on, just not in this story.
> 
> All the rest - New rookies Iris and Blake. Jo and Alex are still around. Frankel set Maya up on a blind date.
> 
> Everyone who is dead - Pruitt (died in SWC instead of Ripley), Vera Kristoff (blew herself up and 225 other people), Avery (burned his face off)

**Late June**  
**VIc Week 17 - large onion**  
**Andy Week 30**

* * *

_Sunday_

Vic was breezing through her coursework for the day. She hadn't realized how great Travis had been for suggesting this. It was strange to realize that all of the studying she did for Medic One had made her prepared for her paramedic classes. Pretty much everything was a review and not new information. At the same time, that made her paramedic classes more studying for her online college class modules she had to take. Since she was working extra reception shifts too, it gave her more time to study.

Better, she and Luke had a breakthrough. Technically, Luke had an emotional breakthrough and she was along for the ride. More, she got a message containing only smile emojis and a black baby which she summarized meant things were going well for Andy and Sully. The babies were growing - still a secret - but ideally that would be over when she took her exams.

All in all, this was proof she could have her cake and eat it too.

That's why it was a huge surprise when Maya unexpectedly arrived. Vic was fairly certain that Maya was supposed to be off on this particular Sunday.

"Yes, Captain?" Vic asked breezily. She paused and closed her module. Eventually, she'd have to go into the college and take the final exams but not today. "How can I help you today, ma'am?"

"Could you come to my office, please?" Captain Bishop didn't sound like herself. Weird.

"Absolutely, Captain." Vic straightened her belly-concealing hoodie and followed Maya. "What's going on?"

"You don't have Facebook or Twitter, do you? No Instagram?" Maya didn't sit down.

"I have a Facebook account under a fake name. I don't keep pictures of myself or anyone on it. There's a picture of a fire truck. I use it to look at the team and department accounts. But I've been busy. The closest thing I've had to a Twitter account was the official wedding one when Francis put my life out there. Definitely don't want to go there again."

Maya opened up Twitter on her phone, and Vic almost threw up.

The most trending Tweet in Seattle was #VictoriaRipleyCheater and #VicandDavidMayhorn. Someone had shared photos of her and Mayhorn from two years ago at a bar.

To be specific the hashtag linked to three photos of Vic and David. In one they were making out, another one had him motorboating her, and in the other one they were . . . dry humping. Someone had helpfully even created a GIF combining all three pictures.

It was obvious from their splotchy skin that they were both horribly drunk. They had been drunk on all three of their encounters. She'd called him the first time, they'd had several drinks before retiring to her place. That morning she'd tried him out sober and it . . . wasn't spectacular. Still, he was a dependable option at the time so they'd gotten thrashed together two more times - ending up at her place one more time and his for that last time. The third time at his apartment convinced her they weren't compatible enough so she quietly gathered her clothes and sent him a 'see you around' text.

The sex itself was hazy, frankly, and she hoped he and Kat had more chemistry. It was the complete opposite of her relationship with Lucas. For the first year, they had sex 100% sober. They hadn't had (awesome) drunk fire chief sex till they were married. Now she couldn't drink and he only drank when he was really, really tense - and she'd initiated the sex anyway.

"It's on Instagram too. All of the news stations have it. The Seattle Times - they got tagged in it," Maya held up some apps on her phone.

"How?" Vic said. "I mean. . . When I dated him two years ago, we never took photos or. . ."

"You think this is doctored?" Maya asked hopefully.

"No. We went out drinking three times and got pretty wasted. The first time I couldn't even remember his name. So it is real."

"I don't know how anyone got these photos," Maya said. "I met Francis and Jack for coffee. You are not to make any comments about this. Do not have any social media presence at all. No tweets, no anonymous comments. Nothing. Close all your social media accounts now."

"I wasn't on social media anyway. The wedding was bad enough."

Maya had more to say, "She's meeting with Ripley too. While both of you are on duty, you're not to have any contact at all with each other. No phone calls, no texts. So the next couple shifts while he is on call, he's going to stay at headquarters."

"What? He's not going to come home?" Vic did not expect that.

"If there's a big call and he's late coming in from home, people might suggest it has something to do with you. He's not allowed to enter Station 19 right now if you're present. You can't see him while you're at your paramedic class at headquarters. You have to be treated as if he doesn't know you when you guys are at work."

"And you had to come tell me this in person?"

"Yes," Maya said. "None of this can have a paper trail. If it does, someone could say that the Fire Chief and the Department are spending a huge amount of resources on Chief Ripley's personal problems. Francis can't come speak to you either for that reason. They going to put out a statement that says they are aware of a photo from 2 years ago something similar to that - maybe three sentences. As of this moment, everything must be completely in 100% professional."

"You mean it has to look professional," Vic corrected her. "It has to look like everything is professional."

"Exactly," Maya said. "Right now you just need to hunker down and do nothing. Everybody knows you're not cheating on Ripley."

"Except all of the people on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, the news stations and the newspaper. Am I going to get a message from TMZ next?"

"If anyone contacts you at all, refer them to Battalion Chief Frankel." Maya gave her a smile that was savage. "She'll set them straight."

* * *

  
The news came on, and Dean was unhappy to see them reporting on the incriminating photos of Victoria Hughes-Ripley that supposedly showed her cheating. The news report itself did not show the pictures, but there were plenty of keywords that made it easy to find on Twitter. The helpful report also mentioned they had already had 3 million views which were more than the entire population of Seattle.

"Can we turn the TV off?" Maggie had just arrived home and was drinking tea out of her favorite mug that now resided at the houseboat. 

Dean's face was set. "What a crock of bullsh-shoes. . ." Maggie found it pretty cute that he tried not to swear in front of her. She'd heard that firefighters could swear like sailors but just not her firefighter.

"We all know it's not true," Maggie said, "right?"

"I don't know all the whens of the Vicley dating history, but I know Vic. Mayhorn's with Kat so this has to be the past. But I don't like the idea of cheaters."

"Cheaters?" Maggie asked.

"Yeah, cheaters," he said. "You know, if you don't want to be in a relationship, don't be in a relationship. You can have flings, one-night stands if that's where you are but don't be a cheater."

She became small and quiet, "I helped someone cheat by mistake once. Remember it told you about Clyde."

"Well, that wasn't your fault," Dean said. "He was cheating on his wife. You didn't even know there was a wife."

"I should have. I should have asked more questions," Maggie still felt like an idiot for being the other woman. But also there was another problem. "Do you think cheating is genetic?"

"What do you mean?"

"My mom, my bio mom, cheated on her husband with my bio dad who was cheating on his wife. I'm born of two cheaters. And my sister, she's part cheater too. And her first husband was cheated on by his wife and then technically cheated on his cheater wife with my half-sister."

"Maggie-" Dean started to say.

"And Amelia, my sort of ex-sister-in-law, she liked cheating on everybody until they found out she had a brain tumor," Maggie was shaking her cup for emphasis.

"Okay," Dean said. "Not sure where to go next. Are we allowed to use logic now?"

"Please use logic now. Yes, logic is always good," Maggie said.

"According to my genetics, I'm supposed to be a businessman. I'm not. You happen to be the combination of two brilliant surgeons, but bad luck with some guys does not mean that you are a cheater. I do not believe that you or I are destined what our genes say we could be - businessmen or cheaters."

Maggie took a couple of deep breaths and seemed to calm down. "Okay. All excellent logical points. Then she looked at him, "Did you say you were down with one night stands?"

"I said one-night stands were fine when you're not in a relationship with another person which would preclude more one night stands."

"Did you used to have one -night stands?"

Now he was very reluctant, "I did." He spoke to her very clearly, "I haven't had one for two years. "

"Oh," she said. "I've never had a one-night stand." There more silence. "Maybe we should call it a night. Go to sleep. And stuff." She put down her favorite mug in bed and went to the bedroom.

It was a very quiet night and not in a sexy way.

* * *

  
Monday

"A word, if I may, Chief Ripley," Frankel was standing outside of his office.

He knew what she was there for and had been expecting her since the first photo was released, "Come on in, Leslie."

Her eyes held all sorts of cool appraisal. "How is your day, Chief?"

"You want to just say it now?"

She entered, crossing her arms over her chest. "Only if you plan on not firing me after I speak."

"You have my permission to speak freely." He rarely offered her the chance to let go of her tongue, but she had every reason to be angry.

"It's always a great day when Twitter informs me that the transfer I approved is the Chief's wife's ex-boyfriend. Did you know?"

"Yes," he said. "I knew who Mayhorn was, but I didn't know about the transfer until after the fact."

"You knew and you never said anything."

"Leslie, what do you want?"

"Who else knew?"

"Captain Bishop, all the lieutenants, everyone on the team," Ripley admitted.

"That's fabulous. You keep the battalion chief in the dark. You let me look like a fucking idiot when I find out about this whole mess."

"I didn't approve the transfer. Sullivan did. He didn't know about the relationship. You and Sullivan approved the transfer before Bishop's promotion. I didn't have a hand in it."

"Someone should have told me," she bit out.

"When was a good time to tell you, Leslie? I heard all about the little chat you had with your officers at Station 19 - who was there, who yelled back at you. Did you think later when you told the Captain Bishop who her transfer was that she was going to speak up? Was she going to tell you that the team she was trying to build couldn't be professional?"

"Someone should have told me so I wasn't blindsided."

"I was blindsided too. And I'm blindsided by whoever is spreading these rumors. You think I was happy when you approved that transfer? No, but it wasn't my place. I'm not allowed to interfere with personnel matters. The relationship, when it occurred, wasn't even reportable to the department. Everyone involved is unranked."

Frankel let that sink in and the light bulb went on with he had deliberately implied. "What do you mean 'everyone' involved?"

"Now that the cat literally out of the bag, I will tell you. While apologizing to me for hugging Vic, Mayhorn voluntarily disclosed that he was dating Kat Noonan. I did not solicit the information, and it's completely acceptable since both of them are on unranked."

Frankel put her hand over her mouth, and he could hear muffled sounds which he believed sounded a lot like four-letter words and the term 'brothel.' It took her about 30 seconds to recover before she said, "I take it everyone on the team is aware of that relationship."

"I was given that impression," Ripley said. "For obvious reasons, I'm not allowed to pursue that line of inquiry."

"Please tell me that the new rookie is a lesbian or is not dating anyone in the group. Please don't let her be dating Bishop."

"I have been given the impression that Stanley is straight. And if anyone's involved in Bishop's personal life, I would say that with you," Ripley raised an eyebrow.

Frankel blinked. "You heard about that?"

"I crashed two of their dates by mistake."

"You know, you were battalion chief for three years, fire chief for three years and now you had two years of being trapped in this gossip vortex that is Station 19. I don't want to hear more. Now I'm trapped in the gossip vortex that is station 19."

"Leslie, giving Captain Bishop's phone number to one of your husband's friends is not really getting involved."

"Then let's keep it that way." She collected herself. "So David Mayhornn dated Victoria Ripley two years ago. Sullivan approved the transfer without knowing their dating history. You and Bishop didn't interfere because it was in the past, and now all of us come to find out later that he is dating Noonan at Station 19 on A shift also. Is that everything I need to know?"

"I believe that encompasses almost every possible iteration of the remaining members of Station 19 dating." Ripley was careful in how he phrased that.

"Promise me there's no one else that could possibly be dating. I'm not going to be blindsided by any more crazy dating issues that are about to appear on the news or Twitter or Instagram. I can't believe there is anyone left on A shift to date. Reynolds?"

"None that I'm aware of."

Leslie took another deep breath. "For what its worth, I am sorry for you and Victoria. This isn't fair to either of you."

"I know," Ripley said. "I'm surprised no one dug this up when we started appearing on the news last year."

"I guess someone recognized her from that drowning incident."

"I don't know about that," Ripley said. "They held it in for 2 years, saw her make the news, and then waited another 7 weeks? She wasn't on camera or mentioned in the carbon monoxide incident."

"It doesn't make sense. I'm hoping for no more surprises." Frankel took her leave.

"No dating secrets," Ripley said to himself when the door closed. 

Frankel wasn't going to get her wish. Fifteen minutes later, someone tweeted photos from the drowning incident - David Mayhorn with his arms around Vic.

* * *

_Still Monday_

The next day things were worse post-shift for Vic. The C shift had avoided her and stayed away when the next set of photos were released. Somewhere, someone had gotten some photos of Mayhorn doing his well as check on Vic after she jumped in the water weeks ago. It did not look good. It was particularly damning since David's giant shirt was gaping at the chest and his name was very visible. Worse, he was hugging her very intimately close, giving the appearance that he'd recently tumbled her. 

  
Of course, Lucas wasn't home when she arrived. She should have expected nothing less because Fire Chief Lucas Ripley was required to stay at the station. She cooked; she did more modules on her college classes. It seemed like such a good idea to take extra reception shifts and have him take call after each of her shifts. It was a great idea for them to have some time off for exam and pregnancy stuff, but it guaranteed they would go greater in 48 hours without seeing each other.

This was the type of day that she'd be tempted to meet him for lunch, not in HQ of course. That would be a bad idea. All of their interactions would have to be at home when neither of them was on duty in any way. Anything in public would only be viewed in the most negative light.

Eventually, she settled on texting. They were still allowed to do that. _Where are you sleeping tonight?_

_Francis's couch._

_It's the least she can do._ Vic answered, trying not to use all caps. 

He didn't respond. That hurt. He hadn't asked how she was doing or about the babies. She hated not knowing how he was feeling. It had always been her way, with rare exceptions, to talk out everything right away. Was he not messaging her because he was hurt or busy or not allowed. His cell phone was used for department business too.

It was unfair that Vic was being treated like a leper while no one was going to voice a single suspicion that Ripley was having an affair with Francis. Jack wasn't worried Ripley was screwing Francis on Jack's post-shift napping couch. Gibson was allowed to see his fiancee at work, but Vic couldn't see her husband.

Technically, she could go see him. There was the option of flaunting Francis's decree. They couldn't stop her. She wasn't charged with a crime. Tempting as it was, it would only make things worse. That made her even more determined to power through all of her coursework. She was not dumb and getting a college degree would only improve her standing.

She was working with such determination; she didn't even consider that no one had texted her. Not even Travis.

* * *

_Tuesday_

Vic had breakfast by herself, watching the news reports. Overnight in Nelson's Battalion, a construction crane had collapsed into an apartment building. The news showed Nelson and Ripley on scene. There were multiple fatalities and a huge set of paramedics.

Not a single message from him. She'd have to assume he was fine and wait until he came home.

Class was weird. No one said a word to Vic about the photos, and Dr. Maggie Pierce was teaching them chest tube placement. Medic One was supposed to do it, but Vic guessed the scene last night had called in all the backups, including her instructors.

Maggie didn't say anything to Vic either, yet she seemed uncharacteristically troubled.

At least class kept her busy through the end of the day. She arrived home to an empty house and cooked dinner for two - or five - depending on her count. Nothing from Luke so she ate alone. She went downstairs and punched the heavy bag. Now she wondered why Travis hadn't called. The rookies wouldn't dare contact her; Francis certainly got to Jack, Maya, Andy, and Sullivan first. After an hour she went back upstairs and got ready for bed. Her phone beeped.

_En route_

Those two words elicited a jumble of feelings in Vic. They had so much to talk about.

He was practically grey with exhaustion. Whatever Vic had planned on saying died on her lips. "Sorry," he was swaying on his feet when he entered. "The crane collapsed at 2 this morning, I had to be on site. I just continued my day."

"The pictures. I-" How could she even start with someone who seemed to have trouble staying awake?

"I know," he said. "You dated two years ago and then drowned kid. I know."

"Nothing is-"

He walked over and kissed her forehead. "I know nothing is happening between you two. We should have been surprised this didn't come up last year during the wedding stuff." He exhaled tiredly, "This isn't the first time somebody said something negative about us, and it won't be the last."

"Wow, one counseling session, and you are pretty zen about this," Vic tried to be funny. "But I want you to hear it directly from me. Nothing is happening between David and me."

Luke's face abruptly changed and his voice was harsh, "Can you please not call him 'David?'" He stopped himself. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just-"

"Yeah, I get it. I don't want you to use the word 'Eva' in a sentence either," Vic was determined not to be negative. "We'll get through this."

"We'll get through this. We're going to be okay" his hand laid possessively over the growing swell of her belly, not camouflaged by his white shirt that she wore at night. "Those are mine. You are mine. We are fine." 

"It just hasn't been a great past two days," Vic confirmed, now reconsidering how 'fine' things were. He was less zen than he'd tried to appear. "Go shower. I'll wait for you in bed."

He staggered off to the shower, and Vic waited for him. If he had gone almost 36 hours without sleep, there was no way they were having a real conversation. Somehow she'd have to hold it all in till tomorrow. He dropped into bed, gathering her close from his side on the right.

Tomorrow. They could talk tomorrow night. They weren't broken.

Except he didn't come home until she was asleep on Wednesday or Thursday.

And he was always gone before she woke up. The warm spot on his side of the bed was the only sign he'd been there.

* * *

_Wednesday at the station._

It was an extremely awkward morning lineup. Vic wasn't present because she had been covering reception on a different shift Sunday to Monday, but Maya noticed Mayhorn and Noonan didn't appear to be speaking to each other. Maya decided to ignore it or else it would call even more attention to the situation.

There had been a few smirks and comments on the other shifts. Maya had a word with each shift and was doing so today with A shift.

Just in case, she called Jack Andy Travis and Dean into her office.

"All of you know why you're here."

"It's because of Vic," Travis said.

"Vic and Mayhorn," Andy corrected him. "This is not just a Vic problem."

"Officially, there is no problem," Maya said. "Right, Gibson."

"I don't know anything," Jack said. "Francis told you more than she told me, Captain. I start to say something, and she cuts me off."

"Officially there is no problem," Maya repeated. "We can't let distractions like this affect our ability to do our jobs. That means that any time I hear backtalk or comments about Vic or David it needs to be shut down right away. I know I've been pretty loose with relationship stuff in the firehouse, but that has to stop. So, my lieutenants, you need to address it unofficially with Mayhorn and Noonan. Jack, you have David. Andy, you have Kat."

"No more sex at the station for anyone, got it," Jack confirmed. 

"No one's talking to Vic?" Travis asked. He half-glared at Jack. "Francis called me too and told me to stay away."

"We already talked. And I talked to both lieutenants on the other shift. Somebody's dragging our teammates through the mud, and we're not going to let that stand. You're not going to that anybody on our team snipe at one of our own. If you hear anything on any shift, shut it down."

Everyone started to file out, and Maya asked Andy to wait.

"Yes, captain?"

"That includes you."

"What do you mean?"

"I know that you and Sullivan are back together. I know you two didn't have sex in here . . . well at least not while on duty, but it's off the table now. You two are not to see each other in the station or at HQ. No sex."

"He said something about Francis already talking to him, but you mean no sex on department property, right? Because we've kind of already-"

"Yes, on department grounds or while one of you is on duty. I don't know his call schedule. If he isn't on call and meets you at home for lunch or goes to an OB appointment with you, that's fine. But do not meet at HQ or here. Have him meet you at the hospital."

"Roger that," Andy was still in an uncommonly good mood. "Don't worry."

"Okay, this is Friend-Maya talking for about 3 minutes. Things between you two are good. Like everything is really good?"

"He's not sleeping alone anymore good," Andy said. "He asked me to marry him."  
  
"And?" Maya wasn't sure if she wanted to hear Andy's answer. Were things so good because they were engaged?

"I told him we needed to take things slow, build trust." Andy had a huge smile.

"That went okay?"

"He said he could wait because he's all in. With this baby coming, it's a little sad how long it took me to accept that," Andy admitted.

Silently celebrating inside, Maya nodded, "I'm glad to hear it's going well. Anything else I need to know?"

Her friend hesitated for half a second. "No, nope. Nothing about me and Bobby that you need to know. Unless you want to hear that pregnant women can get tied up?"

"That's an overshare, even for me. I'll let you and 'Bobby' keep that to yourselves."

When Andy left, Maya replayed the whole thing in her mind. Had Andy just distracted her with sex talk rather than saying more? It occurred to her that Dean had said nothing, that was totally unlike him. Travis hasn't mentioned Levi, and Francis and Jack were being divided by the Hughes-Ripley situation. The photos couldn't be good news for Chief Ripley or Firefighter Ripley. Kat and David weren't doing great after all this. And Maya had a nonrelationship with Declan, who was her coach. 

How ironic that the only people who were completely happy with their relationship were Sullivan and Andy. This week, though it was only Wednesday. 

* * *

_Friday_

Vic's admit shift started with the fabulous release of another photo of her and Mayhorn. It was at the Forge bar, the night she went out to dinner with Andy and Kat. She and David were sitting at the bar in close conversation, cozied up. And Ripley's officer's ring was very visible on the low cut cranberry shirt she was wearing. In reality she had encouraged him to go hit on Kat who wasn't in frame. 

She was on call until Saturday morning and then back on call Sunday for her actual A shift job as a firefighter. Ripley was taking call on Saturday to Sunday which would be a full 72 hours with both of them on duty.

* * *

"I think you've lost too much weight," Declan said after her fifth training session. She'd gotten out of the pool, and he weighed her. "You lost 15 pounds since your initial assessment. You need to eat more. I don't care what. It can be candy."

"Are you seriously prescribing me Snickers?" Maya crossed her hands over her chest, bound flat in her Speedo bikini as he'd advised her.

"That's a good choice since it has some protein. You need to eat carbs. No keto. With all your weight training and your job, you should be on a higher protein diet than average, but you need carbs for sustained energy. You can't build muscle if you lose that much weight."

"I'll be fine," she said. Part of her knew that was a lie. Back when she'd been an Olympian, she hadn't need to carry half a person on her back. She was feeling it when she dressed for every scene.

"Don't give me that bullshit," Declan snapped. "You dropped from 125 to 110, and your gear weighs 70 pounds. You need to put back on at least 10 pounds."

"How do you know how much my gear weighs?" Maya grabbed up her towel and started drying herself off.

"I do know how to Google," he pointed out, "And I asked Trevor. Leslie is smaller than you but taller. He married her when she was a captain. He told me that back then she had to eat constantly just to keep her weight up so her equipment didn't crush her."

"Fine, I'll eat more," Maya replied testily. "I'll get back to a healthy weight."

"You're perfectly healthy," he said, "You don't have to do a triathlon."

"Everybody needs to a goal. I haven't had a race challenge for a while. That 5K last year doesn't count." Maya walked toward the locker room and remembered how difficult it was for her to get out of her bikini top. The back strap was difficult for her to reach, and her chest didn't enjoy the constant constriction. Getting his assistance would help. Except he'd think it was an attempt at seduction. 

Declan noticed she stopped at the door. "Do you need something?"

"Can you unsnap my back? I have trouble reaching it," Maya kept her tone neutral. This was business. She was asking her coach to help her with her athletic wear. 

"I see," Declan stepped up behind her. She held the towel tight and felt him push the back down a little. In less than a second, she could breathe, his huge hands freeing her.

Old Maya would have turned her head and given him a flirtatious look, gesture or comment. Offered him to help her with the rest of her bikini. Not Captain Maya. She didn't want to seduce him. She wanted to impress him with her dedication. Because she needed some part of her professional life to be going well.

She opened the door to the locker room and shut it tight behind her. Keeping him shut out. Like he'd asked.

* * *

  
Sullivan decided to stop by the HQ gym to get a quick workout during lunch. He had company in the form of Chief Ripley. Based on the sweat Luke had worked up, he'd been boxing by himself for quite some time. He's attacking the heavy bag with a fervor like he was trying to exorcise a demon.

"No lunch today?" Sullivan greeted him.

"Morning," Rip replied with a tone Sullivan would have expected out of himself less than a month ago. The sounds of his gloves hitting the bag echoed through the otherwise empty gym.

"Doing okay?" Sullivan said. As his friend, he was giving Ripley the chance to open up about the photos mess.

"Fine," Ripley said. "Got my manpower figures and projections?" The chief had been sending Operations emails with requests for a large amount of information. Based on the timestamps on each email, Ripley was burning the midnight oil regularly and coming in early. 

"Working on it." Since Hastings returned to work early, Hastings was on a very reduced workload and Sully was essentially acting Assistant Chief of Operations. Sullivan had been tasked with data collecting for the massive reports Hastings was compiling for the chief. Ripley had asked for information on all the fire stations twenty-five years into the past and projections twenty-five years into the future.

"Good. Tell me when you get it. I want it early next week," Ripley didn't slacken the speed of his punches.

With his gloves on, Sullivan walked up to the bag and observed Luke pummeling of the bag. He gave Ripley two short jabs in the ribs.

"What the hell?!" Ripley yelled at him.

"You're getting sloppy. Talk to me, Rip."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"There is. You're spending all of your time at the office. You know she never cheated on you. You are her world."

"How is Herrera?" Ripley asked abruptly instead.

"Fine," Sully said. "I mean good. Talking to each other finally like we should be."

"I know you work late when she's on shift. It's awful when they're on shift. Can't see them. Can't touch him. That feeling of waking up next to them. How they smell and their hair tangled everywhere. They have so much more hair. It's on your pillow. On a good day you roll over and let them know how much you like finding them, and their hair, right there in bed." Ripley's voice was very odd.

"I do know," Sullivan agreed, having finally gotten a taste of what Ripley had enjoyed for over a year. "What I don't know is why you are staying so late when she's at home putting her hair all over your pillow."

Ripley ignored his comments. "Since you are back with Herrera, are you the 'plus one' to Ryan Tanner's wedding? Are you comfortable with that knowing that they dated on and off for years?"

"He's marrying someone else, and Andy is having my child. I live with her," Sullivan didn't enjoy Ripley poking that spot. For some reason, Ryan was more of an issue than Jack who worked with Andy every day.

"Yes, you two have been back together for three weeks - this time. It doesn't bother you that there's years of history between her and Ryan. He's back in the city. He could start hanging out at Station 19 again at any minute."

"I don't think about that. It doesn't bother me," Sullivan knew Ripley was baiting him. Tanner was a non-factor at this point.

"It won't bother you to know that Herrera called me once. Somehow she thought my phone number was Tanner's. It was my bachelor party - before you two hooked. She left this long rambling message. She told Ryan how much she missed having sex with him and that she'd be happy to break up his engagement and screw him again. How does that make you feel?" There was an unholy light in Rip's eyes now.

Sullivan took a deep breath. He had no doubt that Andy had left that type of message. "It happened before I was dating her. So I'm really don't get a say in what she did or didn't do before she was with me."

"Imagine I kept a copy of that voicemail, and I sent it to every single member of the department. And your parents. Everyone you know. And they play it on continuous loop all day long wherever you go. How would you feel then?"

Of course, Sullivan got it. Mayhorn and Vic had existed a month or two before Ripley got with Vic. And even though it was in the past, it was right in Luke's face all the time. And Mayhorn was at the station on the same shift as his wife. "I'd be pissed at you. So fucking pissed. I'd tear you apart."

"Exactly. So, no, I can't say things are okay. But I'm dealing. If I can beat the hell out of the punching bag, I will. So either hold the bag or clear-out and get back to work." Sullivan had no choice but to hold the bag. 

* * *

_Saturday_

There was no point in going home. Vic wasn't coming home Friday night, and he was on call Saturday. She'd be on her normal A shift on Sunday and he'd take call again on Monday. They weren't allowed to have official contact until Tuesday night when both of them were off. He had plenty of work to do.

And plenty of time to stew as he ground through piles of facts and figures. Saturday morning released a new set of speculation and photos. 

This time it was different. The comments were aimed at their relationship because someone had captured his argument with Herrera, Francis, and Vic on camera before the press conference after the carbon monoxide incident. He'd stupidly instigated the argument in front of a crowd of reporters, even if no one had any context. He could see his barely controlled temper threatening his secretly pregnant wife to defy him. 

_Are the Ripleys heading to divorce? Is Victoria Hughes's infidelity the reason Chief Ripley is so angry in these photos. Will her cheating revelations tear them apart?_

He couldn't talk to her about this. She assured him Mayhorn was in the past. _Mayhorn told him it was in the past._ While Mayhorn was a solid firefighter, he didn't seem cunning enough to conduct a relationship with Vic and Noonan and lie about it to his chief while getting his ass handed to him during a boxing lesson.

Yet there was proof. The set of photos on Friday had his ring on her neck. That mean it happened sometime before their second wedding but after their first. 

Whatever 'it' was. If they were sneaking around, why had they picked a public bar to have a rendevous? Vic had more sneaking skills than that if she were trying to hide something - hell, he experienced it firsthand for the first part of their relationship. She had lied and lied again over and over to her shift about the existence of 'Kel.' Then she had pretended to be pregnant at the request of the department until their wedding rehearsal. 

So Vic could lie if she wanted to. She could lie to her friends. She could lie to the department. She could lie to Lucas.

The pen he was holding snapped in his hand, splashing his desk with ink.

He swore several times and threw the pen and the ruined papers in the trash. After wiping off his hands, he opened the top drawer for a new pen. His eyes fell on that ridiculous pink glittery bracelet and the decoder ring. What awards had they won last summer? **Sneakiest and Most Romantic.**

That made him calm down. This was getting out of hand. Vic learned to be sneaky and political because of Ripley. She loved him so much that she'd sacrificed part of her innate honesty to be with him. He had to be objective. There were pictures of her dating Mayhorn two years ago. There were pictures of Mayhorn hugging her - Ripley had been present along with her entire team and almost two battalions. There were pictures of him being frightened to the point of fury after the carbon monoxide incident, which had nothing to do with Mayhorn. 

So all that left was that picture of Mayhorn and Vic in a bar. All you could see from that was that at some point between March and March of this year, they had been in a bar together. With a calendar, Ripley could almost certainly narrow down exactly which days that was even possible. She had been homebound for weeks after her appendicitis and had stayed with him at night after his heart surgery in May. In fact, he could see the ring was on their newer chain which meant it occurred after June last year.

He could as easily check the timestamps, assuming they weren't altered. Francis had already quietly assigned their computer forensics team to that task. Francis was keeping her own counsel on this one.

Luke carefully uncapped the pen. His wife was perfect. She was not a cheater. She was in no danger. She was safe. The babies were safe. He'd long known that eventually he'd have to pay for indulging himself the luxury of falling in love with a subordinate. His life was had been a matter of public record for five years so the only place to dig up some dirt would be on Vic. 

They had been to hell and back in these past two years. If someone thought a few pictures and inferences were going to split them apart, they didn't know shit.

Feeling buoyed, he went back to work. He couldn't control out there, but he could control himself and in here. He wasn't going to let anything come between him and Vic. Not this. Not the department.


	2. Week 18 - The One with Blood in the Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Week 18 opens here and even though I can't claim the week is finished yet, I can't help but put it up. Quarantine man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The incident they attend is real, FYI. It happened 25 years ago in Ohio. Don't do what the homeowner did.

**First week of July**  
**Vic Week 17 - cucumber**  
**Andy Week 30**

* * *

_Sunday_

A shift with her team offered no relief because shortly after shift started, someone tweeted pictures from Kat's graduation. Specifically, the one where David thought she was Kat and had full-on groped her. Her wedding ring was visible on her finger, and she wasn't wearing the necklace this time. She was wearing the same cranberry shirt though. So anyone who was casually perusing the gossip sheets would assume this was the same night.

Vic was debating throwing her cell phone out the window when an explosion rocked the station.

"What the hell was that?" Maya asked. "Suit up everyone!"

It had not been an RV crashing into the building this time. Vic and Andy ran toward the aid car as the rest of the team opened the barn doors. They could see a mushroom cloud a couple of blocks away to the north away from Grey Sloan.

Andy strapped in, "That looks like it's coming from the residential section."

"Let's go," Maya said. "I'm going to be the lead in engine. Aid car, you guys need to follow further back, you have the least protection out of any of us. I'm calling this in."

Jack said, "I've got it. Dispatch, this is Station 19. Audible and visible explosion with mushroom cloud. Heading northward to investigate. Will keep you updated."

"Copy that 19," Dispatch answered.

Vic's cell buzzed in her pocket. A message from Ripley. Where are you?

Of course, he'd already heard there was an explosion - at least it wasn't a firestorm this time, and she wasn't trapped in it. She messaged him quickly as Andy turned down the street. _Safe in aid car._

They drove several blocks north, passing a large debris field while moving toward the mushroom cloud. As they got closer, there were more and more windows shattered in the storefronts and houses around them. They reached another residential block and found three-quarters of a house on fire right across from a brick elementary school. Paper, leaves, and pieces of wood were falling from the sky. Local residents were wandering around the streets, dazed and confused.

"This is Captain Maya Bishop. There's a residential structure fire in progress at Bertona and 16th across from John Hay Elementary School. It appears to be the source of the mushroom cloud. Elementary School appears intact. Requesting additional units, additional aid cars, requesting Seattle PD, and potentially bomb squad assistance."

Maya radioed over to Vic and Andy. "You two, head to the school and deploy behind the building. Do a quick inside check because the front sign says there's a basketball camp in progress."

The team stopped near the closest hydrant to start laying down hose. As they got out, Gibson called out for them to stop.

"What is it?" Dean noted debris on the ground.

"Guys!" Jack pointed out to something. "This looks like an M-80."

"M-80?" Iris asked.

"M-80 firework," Travis explained. "Illegal in Washington."

"And everywhere else," Jack said.

They took a closer look at the debris around them, and it was clear that the were numerous M-80s, M-100s, and M-250s scattered amid the falling leaves of stripped trees. 

"I'm thinking illegal fireworks. With the 4th of July in just a couple days, there might be a bigger stockpile here," Maya suggested.

"That means we have a bigger problem," Jack said. "We need to evacuate all of the surrounding houses."

"Okay, Miller, Gibson, Noonan, Mayhorn, evac these people and start knocking on doors. Send them behind the elementary school right now." She commanded. "Montgomery, Stanley, and Reynolds, you're with me. We'll lay down the hose now and try a defensive exterior attack at a safe distance. Aid car, call in the plan to dispatch."

Vic turned on her loudspeaker and started broadcasting the order to evac to the elementary school.

Everyone ran to do their orders. The nearest fire hydrant was at an odd angle from the burning house so Montgomery and Iris started to work on it. Maya instructed Reynolds to start bringing the hose forward, while she continued to assess the scene.

"It looks like the casings are mostly spent," Maya said. "Try not to step on any as a precaution. How's that water coming?"

"Almost there," Montgomery shouted back.

"Okay, we're going to have to maintain a safe distance. Reynolds do you hear me?" She turned back to Reynolds who had moved closer to the house. "What are you doing!"

"Just checking to see if I can see anyone. I thought I saw-"

Whatever he thought would remain a mystery because there was a second boom, and the rest of the house disintegrated in a sudden plume of flame. The force knocked Reynolds backward onto the ground by the edge of the lawn. More M-80s rained from the sky. The house immediately to the left of the explosion was now half engulfed. Three cars on the street were flipped onto their sides.

"Reynolds!" Maya ran forward, grabbed him by the back of the turnouts, and dragged him away. "I have a Mayday here! Firefighter injury. The house is gone, and it took half of one of the B side houses with it."

Travis and Iris came around with the hose line. Travis said "We'll hit this house; the other one is a total loss. Get him to triage."

Blake, stood up wobbly; Maya asked about any numbness or tingling. She got him behind the elementary school and dropped him off with Vic and Andy. They examined him and determined Reynolds was mostly shaky from the concussive force of the explosion.

Maya had almost rejoined Travis and Iris in dosing the flames when a third explosion shook the ground. The second house was gone and now a third house was half destroyed. Maya started cursing, "Full retreat to the engine. This situation is unstable. Evac all civilians behind the elementary school. We need more lines and more help."

Station 17 arrived with 23 at last with Medic One and Ben Warren. 17 had its own deck gun which they switched out to the hydrant to pummel the fire from a distance. The three stations worked to surround and drown the remains of the third house. 

Frankel arrived around the same time as the bomb squad. They made no move to approach until the firefighters had put out the flames, and the scene had been rechecked numerous times with thermal imagery. Any hot spot needed to be doused with extreme prejudice, since it seemed there had been an illegal fireworks factory in the basement of the original home.

Back at triage, Vic and Andy mostly treated minor scrapes and bruises. Other than Reynolds's bonehead move, they hadn't gotten to close to the source. Mayhorn got sent to help with triage of all the scared little kids from the basketball camp.

After a couple of hours without explosions, the bomb squad carefully approached the area. It took them two more hours to clear the site as safe. During that meantime, the neighbors' houses overhaul began. Pieces of one body were found in the originating site, and an elderly married couple was pulled from the rubble of the second house. The occupants of the third house had evacuated in time. Medic One took some of the more severe lacerations from the broken windows that stretched three square blocks. 

Station 19 was tagged out by Station 12 and the Haz-Mat squad, which made them pass command post with the Chiefs Frankel, Ripley, and Police Chief Reyes. The gaggle of reporters who had been cordoned to an area three blocks away went wild despite Francis reporting with the city photographer from Frankel's side throughout the overhaul. Andy, Vic, and Mayhorn left the elementary with smiles because David had entertained the kids by demonstrating cartwheels and handstands in his turnouts.

Those smiles faded when they passed Frankel and the chiefs. Vic and Ripley had a silent eyeball conversation with the words practically floating in the air. 

Him: _Are you safe?_

Her: _Of course, I'm safe. I'm doing my job._

Him.: _You're half a block from an explosion. It doesn't count as safe._

Her: _I would say for the same for the rest of my team, so back off._

Him: _I'm not backing off on the things I'm sure about. And I'm sure I want to keep you safe._

Her: _I'm safe. All of us are safe._

Vic resisted the urge to wrap her arms around her belly that was still concealed by the hoodie.

The two of them never got within 15 feet of each other and broke eye contact. It didn't matter the danger, the job was the job. His and hers.

Unfortunately, the news crews captured a few pictures of that silent exchange that included her transformation from smiling with Mayhorn to serious with Ripley. It was not lost on Francis or Frankel either.

* * *

  
_Sunday evening_

Vic and David were called into Captain Bishop's office.

"I'm sure you two have some idea why you've been called in here. It should come as no surprise to either with you that you are currently a source of fascination with the local press. I received contact from Battalion Chief Frankel that until otherwise noted, you will be confined to duties inside the station."

"Inside the station?" Mayhorn asked.

"Yes, you are assigned to reception. You are not to go on any fire calls. You are not to take any aid car calls. Just reception." She spoke to Vic, "You're already covering reception a lot this month so when you are on A shift, you are now assigned to train the rookies. You will instruct them and drill them in their turnout gear. You will teach them engine mechanics, rig maintenance, and review their CPR certification. Ideally, when you return from your midterms next month we will be able to re-evaluate your duties."

"I guess I shouldn't have expected anything different." Vic couldn't quite control a certain amount of resentment in her voice.

"Mayhorn, why don't you go to reception?" Maya suggested.

Mayhorn may not have been the sharpest guy, but he knew when it was time to leave so he immediately complied.

"Okay, talk," Maya commanded Vic.

"Nothing to talk about," Vic said. "I'm a dirty slut that sleeps with firefighters. Can't keep my pants on."

"The department knows you didn't do anything," Maya said.

"The department still made this command."

"The battalion chief made this command. It isn't a bad thing. You've spent most of the past year on aid car, so this lets you review the basics of firefighting without being forced to take a course. You give them the same CPR education you gave Francis." Maya meant that the last part to be a joke since Vic had tortured Francis during her CPR certification.

"If you say so."

"I do say so. If you could teach Ben Warren to follow protocol, you should be able to whip these puppies into shape with no problem."

"Yes, Captain."

"I know this sucks, Vic. I've got your back. If anybody gives you trouble, I'm giving them hell."

Vic nodded her thanks. This was frustrating, but being taken off of calls wasn't the worst thing right now. She had a little more than a week until she had those two weeks off for testing. She'd be close to 20 weeks by then and it didn't seem like there would be anywhere to hide. Literally, because the turnouts and hoodies did a good job of concealing her belly, but not that good. Maya didn't care that much about uniforms when she was far more interested in training her first set of rookies. If Sullivan had still been in charge, Vic would have never gotten away with it.

He'd also probably have noticed how breathless she was starting to sound. Andy already wheezed like she needed some oxygen. If Sullivan ran into Vic now, he'd know in a second. 

She checked to make sure no one was around and ducked into the supply closet. Her uterus was easily above her belly button now. All the time now, she felt these little flickers of movement. It was calming to know the triplets were in there. That no matter what happened outside in the world, no matter what shitty thing someone said or tweeted about her, these were her and Luke's babies.

Good thing too because the 6 o'clock news was all about the fireworks explosion. And a lot about if the Ripley's were on the rocks after their little eyeball conversation.

By morning the photos of their argument after the carbon monoxide incident were linked to the fireworks incident. And a new line of discussion had evolved.

Does Victoria Ripley have a drinking problem? Is she an alcoholic and that is why she cheats? How long will the fire chief put up with that drunken whore of a wife?

* * *

  
_Monday morning_

Francis came to work early and wasn't particularly surprised to find Ripley asleep again in her office. 

"I need a progress report on the photos," He greeted her.

"Good morning, sir. You didn't go home like Frankel did?" Francis examined his clothing. His chief uniform was rumpled, and his hair was somewhat messy. He had circles under his eyes that hadn't been there before. 

"No, I got called in on my day off so there was no point in going home if I'm on call today." He went back to his previous line of inquiry. "The photos?"

"Computer services determined the timestamps are correct and unaltered. None of the images have been manipulated beyond mild lighting enhancements and gradient removal. There are photos from almost two years ago, some from early January, and the ones released yesterday morning from about two months ago."

"January?" He gave her a critical once over. "Weren't you her handler back then? On Fitzpatrick's beck and call?" Ripley paused, aware that he was crossing the line. "I'm sorry. Vic is responsible for her own actions. You weren't her babysitter."

"If its any consolation, Fitzpatrick is partially responsible for this. Those photos were taken days after she told you about your planned honeymoon in Oklahoma City."

Ripley blinked hard on that. He remembered that time too well. Vic had taken Fitzpatrick's interference in the relationship very hard. She'd started avoiding him, and it had led to the implosion mid wedding rehearsal. At the time, he'd believed that the possibility of divorce was the most painful thing he could experience. He'd been wrong since leaving her to die in a burning building followed by planning on taking her off life support was worse. 

Could she have cheated during that time? It was possible. Eva had cheated. Would it even make a difference now? Not to sound like he was controlling, but he had her whereabouts pretty much accounted for almost every minute of her possible conception window. Even if she had somehow found ten minutes to escape and cheat, he had been inside her so often that he was sure his swimmers could outcompete anyone else by sheer volume. The doctor couldn't be lying about the dates, and Vic had welcomed him to every appointment.

What the hell was he thinking? Victoria Ripley-Hughes was not a cheater. If anyone should have been worried, it was Sully. His woman had an ex-boyfriend she saw every day at work and another ex-boyfriend invited her to his wedding - the one she had been willing to sleep with less than a year ago. Yet Sully was completely unconcerned. 

These photos and new coverage were messing him up. "You seem to take this well. You don't think she cheated?" Ripley asked Francis.

"I've never seen anyone more in love. And considering I followed her everywhere and had instructions from Fitzpatrick to monitor her, I don't think she had time to find a secret lover. Sure, she slipped my leash toward the end, but I'm fairly certain that Vic spent all that time with her teammates. If you could let me talk to her . . ."

"No."

"But she should make a statement-"

"No. She should not. We are not dragging my wife into this smear campaign. She didn't do anything wrong so we shouldn't treat her like she did." All true and Francis hadn't seen Vic in over three weeks. The changes if you didn't see her regularly were . . . noticeable. "Do you have anything else?"

"There're a few people in the background that appear to be other firefighters. If that is true, then these might have been social events. Computer services identified members of 19, 23, and 42 in the backgrounds of some of the photos. . . this means someone in the department could be releasing them. Do you want me to initiate an internal investigation?"

"It could also be perfectly innocent. Maybe somebody's Twitter account or other social media." Ripley didn't like the idea of someone in the department having a hand in this.

"That's a separate problem, which actually is my problem. The image of how our department members conduct themselves reflects on SFD." Francis said. "This isn't 2000 anymore. Firefighters are city employees, not college students."

"I don't think I'll be very popular if I try to dictate people's personal lives out of uniform."

"It would be a good idea for our stations to re-examine their social media settings."

"So how would you suggest we go about this?"

"You shouldn't do anything. In fact, the less you do, the better. I'm going to contact Frankel, and she's going to explore the rosters of anyone who could be involved in these incidents and then put computer services on it."

"Some of the guys from 42 are in these photos too. Not in Frankel's battalion," Ripley pointed out.

"That may be true, but I kind of want to keep Nelson out of this. He's not particularly computer savvy and-"

"And he wouldn't exactly being support anything that interferes with his officers lives outside of the fire department," Ripley admitted. Nelson was a good person, but there was a reason he was retiring soon. He was less flexible than the other battalion chiefs. Not everyone could be Alan Hastings who seemed to get smarter and better with age. Ripley could only hope to be that in twenty-five more years. The five kids wouldn't be bad either.

The door opened. Leslie Frankel walked in jauntily, the total opposite of how Ripley felt. She spoke directly to her chief. "You - handoff. I'm taking over the rest of your call. The department is asking too much of you. You came in on your day off yesterday after being on call on Saturday. The appropriate protocol that someone else covers your call. Don't be a martyr."

"I have work. And call." Ripley tiredly stood up from the couch. 

"I already told you that you're off. Department protocol. You can't work more than 48 hours in a row. Your plan would put you 72 hours on."

"You're working two shifts in a row," Ripley protested.

"No, I put you back on call when you refused to leave. I had twelve hours off so I can take your call." She gave him a snort, "I also grounded Mayhorn and She-Ripley."

"You did what?!" Ripley was getting angry. Vic didn't need to be punished for rumors. "You can't interfere with her career over me."

"It's not over you or her. It's because people are dumbasses. This Twitter bullshit is making her out to be a scarlet woman which is generating a lot of anger at her. The next call she goes out on, what happens if someone decides to confront her for 'sleeping around.' What if someone tries to get physical? Is Herrera going to protect her? I can't afford to risk either of them. And Mayhorn, he's not the swiftest and if someone tries to start with him, he might unthinkingly deck them."

"He can't punch worth a damn." Ripley sighed, "You're right. It's the safest for the shift while this fucking bullshit blows over. Eventually, they'll run out of gossip and see that nothing will make me leave her and they'll give up. Right?"

"That's the plan," Francis agreed quickly. "It might go faster if she-"

"She's not getting involved. Don't ask again," Ripley cut her off. 

"Fine. I'll be doing an interview today with the local news at noon," Francis was trying not to let Ripley rankle her. He knew he wasn't showing his best side right now. The stress and the sleep deprivation were not doing his attitude any favors.

"Stop badgering her," Frankel admonished him. "She's doing her job. You go home and get some sleep so you can do yours."

"Okay, okay," Ripley folded. "I'll grab some work to take home. Have a drink, take a nap. I promise to be 100 percent not on call."

"Good," Frankel said. "See you tomorrow, Chief."

* * *

Ripley got home around 11 am and decided to start working at his dining room table. Vic was dead asleep to the world, and he decided to let her nap a while longer. He laid out the next decade's budget projections and decided to get a scotch. 

One scotch led to a second and a third when he decided to watch the midday news. Francis was going to be on there.

* * *

Travis checked his messages from Levi. _Tom Koracick is a sadist. See you soon._

Dean checked his messages from Maggie. _Sorry, night shift for a while._ No dates were included in her text message.

Meredith checked the OR schedule. Maggie had recently traded to do some overnight shifts. Oddly she'd also been back at the Grey house a lot more lately. She buttered a bagel and decided to watch the noon news. There were a few obs patients overnight from the fireworks explosion.

* * *

"I didn't know that would feel that good," Andy purred. "That felt amazing, Bobby."

Robert carefully removed the scarf he'd used to tie her hands and her blindfold. He'd just finished giving her a full-body massage. As per his preference, she had to warm the massage oil in her mouth and other places and then sit perfectly still while he applied it. At least until he allowed her to talk.

Andy felt like a new person. Finally, she was trusting herself with him. The things he could do to her body... they weren't always physical because he'd become extremely gentle. But the way he drove her psychologically . . . this was someplace no one else had ever gone with her.

"Was it the scarves or the oil?" 

"It was you," she murmured. "The way you make me wait before you finish."

"It is your thing," he licked her ear, running his tongue over the light imprint from the blindfold.

"It's only ever been with you."

"God, I hope so," he said. "Sometimes it's what keeps me sane." He played with the too slick skin of her shoulder. He wasn't on call so he was 'allowed' to go home for lunch.

"What does that mean?" She half-sat up, and he pushed her back down.

"I try not to be jealous. Gibson's got Francis, so I can handle that. But Tanner - he's more difficult. It's hard to compete with someone you've known your whole life and have been on and off with for a decade." He propped himself on his elbows above her. 

"We can cancel going to the wedding. I know we already RSVP'd but-"

"I'm fine," Robert said in a voice that might not have been perfectly fine. "Everyone in your station is going, even the Chief. They're not doing it because they think Tanner is a fine upstanding police officer. It's for you. The only legitimate excuse you have is if you give birth to my baby before then."

"'My baby,'" she repeated. "My woman. Me, Tarzan. You, Jane."

He captured her arms, and his eyes devoured her naked gravid form. "Yes, and that's how you like it."

She moistened her lips, "Again?"

He considered it but glanced at the clock. "I want to, but I think Hastings will notice if my 'long lunch' takes all day, even if I am acting Assistant Chief of Operations. He still comes to work.."

"Substitute Assistant Chief of Operations is more fun than being captain. Long lunches don't happen at the station."

"He told me to take a long lunch because I was there yesterday working. I stole the page from the Ripleys." Robert searched on the floor for his clothes.

"What?"

"Ripley works late anytime Ripley-Hughes is on shift. How late he works the next day depends on how busy 19 was the day before. Or he takes call. He works the least on Hughes-Ripley's free day."

"He told you about this?"

"Hastings did. That man, he knows everything about everyone. He could pinpoint the day she came into Luke's life by just the way his schedule changed."

"And all that time we thought she was dating some guy named 'Kel.' Transforming the person we thought at least likely to keep a secret into a CIA operative."

"I don't have to worry about that with you," Robert said. "It's like you have to tell everyone what you think."

She pulled the sheet up over her body and whacked him with a pillow. "That is not true. I can keep a secret. We were very sneaky for a while and the baby."

"Not your best example because almost everyone your station knew we were sleeping together, and Ripley and Vic knew you were pregnant weeks before I did." Robert refastened his pants.

Andy needed to change the subject before she did blurt secret that wasn't hers. "So back to work. Hastings had you work on Sunday and gave you the carrot of getting a long lunch today."

"Hastings is not the one cracking the whip. Chief Ripley has a lot of stuff he needs done. A lot of work." The humor had faded completely from Bobby.

"Oh. Vic and Ripley . . . are they . . ." Were rumors enough to split them up with Vic so secretly pregnant?

"I don't know," Robert said. "He doesn't want to talk about it. After Eva cheated on him, it can't be easy." His eyes flashed. "If I had a way to figure out who is doing this, they'd have to hold me back cuz I'd be tempted to strangle them. You want to go after someone - do it like a man. Don't fucking attack the wife and spread bullshit rumors. We protect our own."

"You think it's one person doing this?" Andy hadn't thought that much about the 'how' of the pictures. Vic hadn't been on A shift much since the carbon monoxide incident and now Maya had confined her to the station.

"The way Hastings acts - there is something. He hasn't said much about it to me which usually means he's playing a longer game. I think he's doing something else."

"Ripley is lucky to have a friend like you," Andy said. It was definitely better not to say that Ripley couldn't seem to stand her. He had a harder time getting over the pregnancy lie than Robert did. Then again, Bobby was considering murdering somebody for his best friend. If Maya killed someone, provided it didn't break Andy's water, she'd help Maya dispose of the body.

Now that he was fully dressed, Robert said, "I'm going to grab some coffee on my way out since I didn't actually eat lunch. I had other things. . . That will have to sustain me."

"Then I promise to eat for both of us." On cue, the baby started kicking. "Oh, there she goes again."

He was right at her side, one hand on her belly. Andy didn't think she'd ever get tired watching how he responded to their child. She kicked herself over and over again about the weeks she wasted not basking in this regard. 

"Sorry, he said. "It's primal." He kissed her belly and her lips before he headed out. 

Andy got up and turned on the TV. She needed to have a low carb lunch with her gestational diabetes. Might as well catch up on what people were saying about the fireworks explosion.

* * *

  
The news broadcast opened with 'Rumors of Infidelity Rock the SFD.' They had a whole photo spread of the carbon monoxide confrontation followed by yesterday's photos from the firework explosion. 

They cut immediately to Francis who was sitting in the newsroom with them. She was asked about the rumors, and she calmly stated that it was not department policy to comment on the status of personal relationships between spouses or others.

Unfortunately, that led to clips of David Mayhorn being ambushed at his apartment.

"Is that you with Victoria Ripley in the photos?" A reporter asked while Mayhorn tried to get to his door.

Mayhorn, very uncomfortable, stated, "We dated almost two years ago."

"So that is you?" a reporter tried to get confirmation.

"I'm not in a relationship with the chief's wife," he said. "I'm dating Kat Noonan."

"Isn't that one of the other firefighters at Station 19? Don't you work there now?"

"I applied for a transfer to Station 19 before I started seeing Kat." Mayhorn dropped his keys.

"So you slept with the chief's wife and now another firefighter at that station?" a female reporter pressed on.

"I . . . umm . . . I dated Victoria Hughes almost two years ago."

"Then can you tell me why she is wearing the chief's ring in the photo of you two at that bar? Or why she is wearing her wedding ring in that photo here." The reporter held up the photo of him grinding on Vic from behind.

"I don't remember," Mayhorn was bright red, keys back in his hand.

"Don't remember?" The reporter repeated.

"It was post shift. I'd had a few drinks."

"Both times?"

"I'm not sure."

"You aren't sure if you were drinking both times or you aren't sure how many times you were with her? You two appeared to be heavily drinking in the photos from supposedly two years ago."

"Umm . . . I dated Victoria Hughes almost two years ago."

"Was she drinking heavily too? Which times? Every time? Does she always drink like that?" The reporters were circling him now, sensing blood in the water.

"Do you remember how many firefighters Victoria Hughes slept with?" One of the men in the back of the pack yelled out. "Does she regularly get smashed and screw other firefighters?"

"I need to go now." Mayhorn used his superior height to force the door open and shut it behind him.

Now they cut back to Francis in the newsroom. Her smile was more brittle this time. "The relationships between consenting adults is not the business of the Seattle Fire department. We're concerned about the agenda of whoever is spreading this type of rumor about the professionalism of our firefighters."

The morning talk show host didn't seem convinced. "That's your statement? After all of this and the admission of Mr. Mayhorn that he can't remember his encounters with Mrs. Ripley?"

"For the record, Firefighters Victoria Hughes and David Mayhorn had a relationship about 2 years ago. Firefighter Hughes consequently married Chief Lucas Ripley. Firefighter Mayhirn was transferred to Station 19 after the horrendous injuries that Captain Sullivan and Firefighter Ripley received during the Valentine's Day shootout. When he decided to pursue a relationship with Firefighter Noonan, they informed their superiors, including Chief Ripley as per our updated relationship and sexual harassment policies. Mr. Mayhorn and Mrs. Ripley may have had occasional contact at social events." Francis glared directly into the camera, "That is all I have to say on this matter. Let's talk about illegal fireworks."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've been busy drinking quarantini's (quarantine + martini) and not finishing my book because I'm juggling a few projects - writing books under my real persona and preparing for Passover.
> 
> But I can't resist the fun of writing this story and the mystery that is developing - where are these photos coming from? Who is doing this? Why? What do they want? I promise when all it revealed - so very slowly (sorry) it will be worth it. 


	3. Week 18.5 - The One with Suspicion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fallout of the fireworks and Mayhorn's interviews continue. For some couples, things are looking up. Others might be crashing and burning. 
> 
> Oh, and Vicley has it out at last.
> 
> Very Sexy. More 50 Shades than usual. You've been warned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, Declan. Bet Maya didn't see that coming.

**Early July  
Vic Week 18 - cucumber  
Andy Week 30 **

* * *

_Still Monday  
  
_Vic woke from her nap due to a crashing sound in her kitchen. She jumped out of bed and was shocked to see her husband, still in uniform, smashing bottles and glasses on the floor. Luke's expression was feral – anger, fear, frustration - gaunt with dark circles under his eyes. There was a half-finished bottle of scotch on the dining room table with all sorts of paperwork scattered and the remains of what had been his whiskey tumbler.  
  
She didn’t know what to say. He froze when he saw her, dressed in his white T-shirt and boxers, the edge of her belly starting to stick out.  
  
“GO AWAY!” Lucas shouted and threw another glass across the living room toward the TV.  
  
That hurt. Vic flinched. Why had he thrown something at the TV. . . they were showing Mayhorn talking to reporters, overlaid with captions of ‘alleged lover of Victoria Hughes-Ripley.’  
  
Now she understood. “Lucas. I’m not cheating on you with David.” That was the wrong thing to say because his face transformed.  
  
“NO! His name is Mayhorn!” He stepped over the shards on the floor. His hands shot out, pulling her close. He was shaking with pent up tension and emotion. “You are mine. Just mine.”  
  
His features shifted again and then he was kissing her fiercely, tasting of scotch and longing. “All mine.” He murmured, stepping back for half a second. This time Lucas took hold of the white T-shirt she wore and ripped it apart right down the center.  
  
She stumbled a half pace backward, unsure of this new stormy Lucas. She hadn’t been wearing a bra, and he was drinking her in with eyes near ebony. “Lucas-”  
  
“Only mine. Forever.” Her formerly easygoing husband had converted to a caveman who was dragging her into this totally uncharted relationship territory.  
  
She had limited choices here. Whatever grim place he had gone, if she rejected him, who knew what it would do to him. If she welcomed him, they would be going deeper and darker than they had ever been before.  
  
As if it was even a choice. He wasn’t the only one who _needed_. “Forever,” she agreed in a near whisper.  
  
Lucas actually tore off his own shirt, buttons flying in all different directions. His mouth was on her neck, exploring the crevice of her ear. Lucas’s words made her shiver as a hot wave of desire swept over her. “If you need me to stop, tell me now. I'm about to drive out everyone else till it's just me."  
  
“Only you.”  
  
Somehow he captured her, dropping both of their clothes in the hallway. Before she had time to process anything, she was on the bed naked, a willing offering to this aroused angry god. His touch was everywhere, stroking her hair, pinching her, penetrating her, overwhelming her with his sensual assault. Lips on her chest, he alternated sucking and nipping her, marking her with his teeth.  
  
“Just mine,” he growled, sliding two fingers into her channel and rubbing her clit with his thumb. Lucas rolled them so he was behind her, one hand between her legs, the other on her belly.  
  
“Luke,” she moaned at his mercy. While it was extremely out of character, this savage almost stranger had no qualms about bending her to his will. He rarely used his physical strength over her; she had a feeling that was to change today. It was clear that he was going to use everything in his sexual arsenal against her. They hadn't had sex for a week. The pregnancy primed her body for more orgasms, more sex, more sensitivity. Even more, he knew her body, her turn-ons, her tells, so well that he was going to exploit every single one of them to brand her as his.  
  
He kissed his way down her shoulder with his right hand twirling her nipples before going back to her belly. “You love it when I give it to you. All wet. All slick like this for me. Open up so I can get you full again.”  
  
Had she forgotten that drunk Lucas was such a dirty talker? Between him fingering her and his words, he was going to get her off in record time. "Yes," she could tell she was whimpering. "Fill me up again. Please, Luke."  
  
Of course, he did no such thing. He had decided he was going to dominate her with orgasms. First, his fingers got her off, then he flipped her to eat her out. He gripped her hips hard as she tried to buck off the bed, lapping up her moisture until she came screaming his name at the top of her lungs.  
  
Lucas never let her catch her breath. He was already back on her, sinuously tweaking her peaked nipples first with his hands then his tongue. Exerting control that could be described as miraculous, he teased her channel in a reversal of what she usually did, dragging his cock up and down her mons, stimulating her clit and titillating her with his near entry. He kept his body rigid above hers, resting his weight on his arms, avoiding pressure on her stomach.  
  
She was begging and screaming and cursing as she went over the edge for the third time. Each orgasm was only an appetizer. He was messing with her and torturing himself, denying them both fulfillment together. Never before had she needed him to drill her so deep or hard.  
  
Finally, he urged her with short filthy words to climb on top of him. Vic was unbelievable soaked and so was his dick from cock-teasing her. She sank down over him, relief washing over her with him joining her in the spot where she felt complete.  
  
Still, he denied her, using his stronger muscles against her, to prolong her gallop. Even though she got to ride him, he was the one who controlled the pace lifting her and keeping her from finding the rhythm. Vic hovered at the knife’s edge because he refused to delve into her the way she craved now. He was driving her as wild as he must have felt.  
  
“Luke,” she whimpered. “Please. Please. I need you.” She tried to lower herself but his hands kept her still like a vice.  
  
“Beg.”  
  
“Please. I need it. I want it.” Her nails were cutting into his shoulders, trying to get him deeper.  
  
The midday shadows dappled his harsh features with near unholy light. Their gazes held. “Tell me what you need. How you need it. Just from me. . . Dirty.”  
  
“Fuck Luke.” She couldn’t stop herself. He didn’t want her to stop. He needed to hear the naughty, lewd, dirty words, and they were ready to tumble out. “Only you. You’re the only one I ever want. You’re the only one who got to do me bareback and fill me up with your hot cum. Please, again. I need-”  
  
He immediately stopped resisting and let her slam downward, burying him to the hilt. Vic shrieked and he let loose, his eyes still fixed on hers. It was like being in a tornado, tearing apart every rule, every boundary, losing all vestiges of civilization. Skin, sweat, they were one, Vic opening, letting him split her almost apart, stretching her the way only he could.  
  
At some point, something snapped inside her, kicking off her most powerful orgasm yet. The world swam and fortunately he was holding her, chasing the same climax. He yelled her name, embracing her as he pumped his load into her depths.  
  
Somehow she ended up on her side next to him, limp and fulfilled. Was there such a thing as a sexorcism? This had to be what Sully and Andy did every day, getting owned, branded. It was powerful, addicting, and exhausting.  
  
His letdown was different. She watched something collapse inside him and new vulnerability peered out from behind his eyes. Vic had a sudden fear that he was going to shatter.  
  
"Vic. I-I-I-" his voice wasn't his own. "I'm sorry. I-I can't." He tried to push her away, shame evident.  
  
"Stop. Lucas. Stop. I'm fine," She brushed his sweaty hair back from his temple.  
  
"It's not. I-I forced . . . Those questions they ask each visit . . . I'm- I can’t-"  
  
Then he did something she’d never seen him do before. He cried. Her big strong chief was crying, tears running down his face, struggling to get away from her.  
  
“Stop. Stop. I love you. I wanted you too.” He let her gather him close, supporting him with her warmth. She cradled him against her until the sobs stopped and he dropped off into sleep.  
  
Everything was wrong. This was such a mess, and he was a mess. They’d gotten dragged into this crazy vortex and she didn’t know how to get them out. Things had been looking up and now . . . It was bad. Really bad. Really, really bad.  
  
Despite the unfairness that marrying the chief had railroaded her career, Vic had never been so happy she WASN'T an officer. Her team, her battalion chief were taking steps to protect her, but that didn't exist for the fire chief. The buck stopped with him. Vic could be cloistered inside Station 19, but Lucas has to go out there every day and face it loud and proud.  
  
They needed to talk. Like talk yesterday. Definitely talk now.  
  
When she went back to check on him, he was still passed out. It didn't seem fair to wake him up.  
  
He didn't wake up all day. Not even when she got in bed at eight after cleaning the kitchen.  
  
He was gone again in the morning.

* * *

_Afternoon_

It was swim day and Maya was in her Speedo bikini, hitting the water for all she was worth. She knew she was exhausted. She was pissed she had so much going on. Stupid Blake almost got himself blown up by not being careful enough with the explosion. Then grounding her team and David shoving his foot in his mouth during that new conference. Frankel had singed her ears for not predicting the debacle. Add that onto the ongoing tawdry photos of Vic and the rumors of cheating. How had no one noticed Station 19 fought a fire against an illegal fireworks factory that almost BLEW UP A BLOCK!?  
  
She'd slept like crap. She eating like crap, but damn it. She wasn't going to give up on her training regimen. She could make some freaking lemonade and ignore everybody else. The drive comes from within.  
  
Declan was walking beside the watching her and occasionally shouting out suggestions. "I don't know what's going on with you today, Bishop, but your form is sloppy. Focus. Tighten things up."  
  
She tried she really did, but then her vision went black.  
  
Declan saw her go under and not move. When she failed to resurface in a few seconds, he jumped in the water and grabbed her. She was completely motionless, not even breathing.  
  
Since he was tall enough to put his feet down he walked them over to the wall as quickly as he could and carried her out. He gave her a quick couple chest compressions and abdominal thrusts followed by a rescue breath. After two breaths, she started coughing up some water and sat back up.  
  
“Maya! Maya!” The sound was far away as the world came back into focus.  
  
“What happened, Declan?" He had his arms around her which but strangely comforting.  
  
"You went under. I pulled you out."  
  
"I went under and didn't come up?"  
  
"Yeah, what's going on with you today? You're not focused. You're not here."  
  
She tried to get away from him, "You know what? Being here is not always the most important thing. You see how the building blew up yesterday? That was my station. You see that woman being accused of cheating on her husband from the fire department? That was my friend that you met. One my freaking rookies almost got himself killed yesterday because he is too inexperienced and too dumb to know he's a problem. And my transfer just told the whole city that Station 19 is one drunken orgy. So no, maybe I'm not focused."

"You scared the shit out of me going into the water like that. Why didn't you just say something? We could have picked an exercise that didn't involve near-drowning and scaring the hell out of me."

"Because the training schedule says swimming is what we're supposed to be doing today. I only get so many days off. If I'm going to stay focused, I've got to stay on schedule. It's my last day of coaching, and I needed to get it in."

"If your damn coach is pushing you too hard, you're allowed to tell me to fuck off and reschedule," Declan said vehemently. "No race - no game is worth killing yourself over."

This was the most ripped up she'd ever seen him. He yelled at her before in his ‘coach voice’ but not like this.

She looked at his eyes and saw true fear in them. There was a sore spot in her chest because he must have given her CPR.  
  
"You pulled me out and gave me CPR."  
  
"Yeah I'm CPR -certified. All of my trainers are."

"Have you ever done it to a person before?"

"No, first time."

Now she got it. For her CPR resuscitation was an everyday thing. For him, it had to be a disturbing and frightening experience. This anger was probably panic.

"Oh," she carefully touched his face, "You did a good job. I'm okay, really."

"You sure?" he was still holding her. His arms had a slight tremble, but she doubted he was shivering from his impromptu swim. Odd. Even though she was the one who tried to drown, she was the one who wasn't scared.

"This is my fault," he said. "I was pushing you too hard. You didn't look great when you arrived. I should have modified your workouts."

She broke the rules and gave him a kiss.

Boom, there's were went more M-250s.

This was not a regular kiss. In fact, it was nothing like the few kisses they had shared months ago. Those massive arms pulled her close, plundering her mouth and letting her take sips of the scorching fire he hid beneath the surface. He was fumbling with something on her back and suddenly she felt like she could breathe more deeply. Maya barely had time to understand that he had unhooked the constraining back okay Speedos because she was reveling in his mouth suckling her full tits instead. She rotated to better position herself across his erection and give him better access the ravishing her chest

It had never been more clear that ‘self-care’ and ‘self-control’ where to vastly different things. Their control was unraveling and they were getting their self-care instead. His right fingers snaked their way under her bikini bottoms, finding her clit and her opening.

He told her he wasn't going to be doing this - that was unprofessional and the fireable offense – according to gym policy. Right now she definitely didn't give a damn. All that mattered right now was letting him do whatever he wanted.

Declan increased his pressure, angling his fingers across her clit, alternating with fingering her. She pushed herself forward, wanting and needing more. "Don't stop."

Talking wasn't necessary because Declan kept his mouth on her siphoning her nipples and his fingers between her legs, bringing her off all sopping wet on his lap.

When her last shudder had passed, he pulled back. She lay in his arms spent, her tips tight red buds and his fingers still inside of her.

In a rare moment of clarity, Maya had no doubt that whatever happened next had to be his choice, not hers. Declan removed his hands and refastened her top. His eyes remained glued on the outlines of each peak easily visible through the fabric.

"Sorry," he said.

"Did you just say 'sorry?'" she asked incredulously.

"Yes," he said, "I'm sorry because I told you I wouldn't touch you, and I did. Absolutely not appropriate of me."

She carefully wiggled off his lap. His wet clothes outlined his tense muscles and full tent. "Neither of us meant for that to happen. I'm not sorry it did. I liked it. I hope you liked it."

"I obviously liked it," he said, "But it shouldn't have happened. It was an impulse. You scared me and-”

"Was it an impulse? she asked.

"You had a shitty day, and you needed some comfort,” he said. “You have a whole lot of people in your phone who are happy to give you comfort when you need it. Any of them could have provided this same service, but I happen to be here and the one you are paying." The disgust in his words was directed inward.

Maya held his face in her hands. “I don't want the people in my phone. I want the one that told me to get over myself. The one who wouldn’t give me the time of day, who really gets what it means to be me. Based on my Google search, based on your past life, I’m sure you have plenty of names in your phone can you can call when you want self-care."

"I shouldn't have accepted you as a client. I like you too much . . . I wanted you too much."

"You know what, Declan? This is my last day with you as my paid coach. Yesterday before a building actually blew up, I was thinking about asking you out on a date. A date where there was food and where I wouldn't sleep with you after. Because it seems to be what you want."

He let out a deep breath. "If you'd asked me, I'd want to have said yes."

"We're on the same page then. As of this moment, you're fired. You are not my personal trainer. There's no conflict of interest here. No one's life depends on this. Dating isn’t going to hurt anyone else. We are not breaking any rules that can endanger another person. And trust me, I would know."

"I did like coaching you,"

"If you want to come to coach me in your free time, sure. And I'm also quitting your gym."

That made him laugh, "You need a refund?"

"No. But would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow? Maybe afterward we can Netflix and chill."

He looked at her quite seriously, "Maya, "he said, "I want to be clear, and you can decide if you still want to go to dinner with me. You were weirded out by me running into all of those people you dated, but that's nothing compared to what I used to do. I've had hundreds of one night stands. Most of them women, though there are a couple times I was so out of it I have no idea. Sex became a thing it didn't matter anymore. Meaningless."

"Are you a born-again virgin now?"

"No," he said. "But next person I sleep with, it's going to mean something. Doesn't mean I'm going to marry that person or we're going to have kids, but it's going to mean a hell of a lot more than anyone has in the past."

"And what we just did? I did – we -"

"We can do that, and everything in between, but I'm not actually having sex with you. At least not yet."

"So you’re willing to give me a lot of really nice orgasms, and let me give some back, but no P in V?"

"Yes. If that’s not something you can deal with then don't have dinner. We can go our separate ways."

"I think I want dinner and dessert."

* * *

Tuesday Ripley took another call to make up for the one Frankel had covered. Wednesday he didn’t come home till she was asleep after midnight. Vic decided to add a 12 hours 4 pm-4 am shift. She sent a quick email to Maya about the added time. She’d still be off over 25 hours on Friday and then she’d cover Saturday with A shift. And Ripley would be back on call Sunday.

Her midterm test was on Monday and then she been on break for two weeks. She’d thought that Ripley would be cutting back his hours. But now she didn’t know anything. This could not go on.

* * *

_Thursday night_

Travis and Levi were settling into bed when Levi spoke up, “You seem distant. What's wrong?”

“Sorry, it's Vic. I’m worried about her with all the cheating stuff.”

“What cheating stuff?” Levi asked.

“Where have you been for the past 2 weeks?”

“Neurosurgery,” Levin pointed out the obvious. “Koracick.”

“You seriously haven’t seen this? Here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. This is the newest one released tonight.” Travis had all the scandal sheets tabbed his phone. He got angrier each time he saw them, yet he couldn’t look away. Someone needed to keep an eye in the bullshit.

Levi scanned it all silently before asking, “How is Vic taking this?”

“I don't know,” Travis said.

“You asked me how I didn't know about this? how do you not know how your best friend is doing?”

“Francis Smith told us to keep our distance.”

Levi snorted. “Have you even thought of giving her a care package? Anything?”

“No, Travis admitted sadly. “You think I should have?”

“You haven't even visited her even if you can’t talk about the photos. You're a master baker, and you didn't make her a cake.”

“Masturbater,” Travis mumbled under his breath, but Levi did have a point. He got out of bed.

“What are you doing?” Levi asked.

“Making muffins.” It might have been Levi’s golden weekend to spend with Trav. But Travis hadn’t been living up to his duties as best friend. Same way that Levi hadn’t exactly been a boyfriend.

At least Vic he could do something about.

* * *

During her Thursday night shift, someone released the photos of her bachelorette party, She'd been drunk, and Mayhorn had picked her up when she fell off the bar. No one could see Maya getting the same treatment.

It didn’t matter because the comments were all the same. Most of the comments amounted to that she was a drunken liar and a slut. It hurt to read that. But it would have been tolerable if she actually had Lucas with her. Instead, he was always unavailable.

When she got home around 430, she didn’t get into bed. She pulled up a chair and watched her husband sleep, wondering what he was dreaming. Did he hate her? Did he love her? Was he staying because of the babies? Would she live like this forever, half alive?

His alarm went off at 5 am. He sat up and saw her sitting in the chair. “Vic, shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

“We need to talk. You’re either asleep, at work, or roaringly drunk during the day. When else can I catch my husband unless I screw him or corner him.”

“Vic, I need to go to work. I really don’t have time to deal with this.”

“You’re gonna avoid me forever? Screw me here and there all crazy possessive and then disappear again?” He sat impassively, and Vic decided to take off the kid gloves. “You don’t have anything to say about me and David?”

That got a reaction at last. “I told you to stop calling him David,” Luke’s voice cracked across the room.

“He’s my teammate. Not my boyfriend. We dated less than a month. I don’t love him, I don’t feel anything for him except friendship because he’s a co-worker. My teammate, David.”

“His name is Mayhorn. I’m your husband, Lucas, not him.” He flung his arms out. “I'm your family. Those babies are mine, not his.”

“That doesn’t make David anything more than my co-worker.”

“But he COULD have been. He could have given you what I can’t. I know it’s not rational, but he's your age, your rank. He could give you the uncomplicated life I can’t. You wouldn’t be hounded by rumors, getting your face splashed on the news or gossip columns. It’s all happening because of me, not because of something you did.”

“I don’t want him! I never wanted him. I love you.” Vic came around and gently placed her hands on his shoulders. “I miss you so much. Is it so hard to see me that you stay away all the time? Are you ashamed of me?”

“I’m not ashamed of you,” he whispered into her hair. “You didn’t do anything wrong. There’s nothing else I want to do than be here with you.”

“Then why have you left me alone for two weeks?”

“I haven’t been in the best of mood lately so it’s better I’m not here. And I'm working on stuff you're not allowed to be involved in." He sat down heavily. "The NOSHA investigation isn't back.”

"Oh," she said.

"I don't know when it's coming back. I don't know what it's going to show, but I’m sure it will have something about us in there. At that point, the trial will be in the court of public opinion that will sway the Mayor’s decision to keep me or not."

"Oh," Vic said quietly. "So you risked your entire career for a faithless slut. Got it."

"You didn't do anything wrong. There's a lot going on behind the scenes. There's stuff I can't talk about yet. They're investigating where these photos are coming from and we have suspicions. Someone in the department is participating to some degree."

"They are? You know that?"

"Yes," he said. "We do, but it’s very sensitive. It won’t matter much because, in the end, everything about me is going to be put under a microscope when the NOSHA findings come back. So, I need to make sure that, if I'm asked to resign, I have everything ready for my successor.”

"You're not responsible to do anything if they force you out.” Vic wasn’t feeling the love for the SFD at this moment.

"This job has been my life and my legacy. I already have my 20. I have my pension, but I won't take a demotion. I'll leave. And whoever comes after me, I want to give them a 6-month plan, a Five-Year plan, a 10-year plan. I thought I'd have more time before the babies came. But now I'm not leaving anything to chance. I need to have everything in place in case there's a day when the Mayor tells me to pack my things.”

"I'm sorry, Lucas,” Vic apologized. “We thought we got married and it would make it so much easier. But it isn't. Maybe it's harder. If we were broken up or divorced you could say, ‘yeah, it didn't work out we broke up. No harm, no foul, she's a paramedic now.’”

"You have nothing to be sorry about. I’m the one who is sorry for hurting you. For making you feel like this. I don't want to hear you talk like that. Victoria Hughes does not take the shit like this.

"'Victoria Hughes’ isn't going to be working much in the next couple of weeks because I’ve been killing myself lately. One more shift and a test on Monday. Once that test is over, I’m gonna be home as a baby growing machine for a few weeks. Will I be by myself?”

"No,” he held her tightly. “The plans are almost done. I want to be home with my lovely wife and baby-growing machine.”

"One shift and one test. Freedom by Tuesday.”

"One more shift,” he agreed. “Can you please go to bed? I saw the submitted schedule change. I’d hate to have to call down the Chief to reprimand you for work hours violations.”

“Fine. Bed. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“You know, you could spend an hour or two here before work.” She moved to her side and patted the bed next to her. “I’ve got to take off my uniform.”

“Eggy,” he shook his head. “Not today.”

“But last time we-”

“I love you, Vic. I love everything about you, and I would love to sleep with you, but I can't right now. I'm too emotional. I'm not in control.”

“I had a good time last time. It was different - kind of a new side of you.”

“It's a side that I'm not sure I like. I've never done anything like that to you, and I don't know what I would have done if you told me to stop.”

“I am sure you would have stopped.”

“I want to think I would have too,” he said. “But - all of this - I don't want to bring it into our bed. This jealousy, the possession. I’m not sure I like the person that it makes me. I've been down this road before, taking fights into the bedroom and it didn't go . . . well.”

Now she understood. Eva. “I respect that. I do want to say that I'm glad you could tell me. Even after our problems, we could talk.”

“See, one therapy session, and I'm healed,” Ripley joked. “I do have an appointment coming up.”

“Healing,” she suggested. “Speaking of some sexual healing, I’ll let you off this time, but don’t think I am going to let that go for long. Pregnant lady’s got needs too.”

“I'll take that under advisement,” he said.

Later around 10 am when she woke up, he had left her a fake-grilled cheese sandwich, a cut apple, and a thermos of decaf coffee. There was a little note for ‘Eggy’ with the heart next to it.

That gave her time to reflect on the situation. Sometimes she had trouble completely understanding Lucas. He was very different from her – introspective and thoughtful. She was a good person, but he was so complex and internally driven. When he felt like expressing himself, it was hot and powerful and sexy and addicting and sometimes frustrating.

Like sex. When she wanted it from him, she just went ahead and got it. He generally wanted to be right there with her and he loved her confidence. But apparently there was a point wat which it could get too raw and emotional. Emotional intimacy mixed with his anger jealousy and fierce protectiveness. He was worried about hurting her, even if she was was perfectly capable of telling him where her limits were.

On the other hand, it was also part of what made him so attractive. There was so much under the surface. He could be the logical fire chief but, with her, the dam would burst with so much passion and intensity. Even after being married for over a year, it was still a surprise sometimes how deeply he felt things.

Her revelry was interrupted by someone knocking on her front door. She checked her bathrobe, making sure her belly was well covered. Through the window, she saw it was Travis and Levi, rather than a reporter.

“Oh, now you stop by? Had to check on the slutty McFirefighter with guilt McMuffins?"

Travis had the grace to look chagrined. “Sorry.”

“You are not a slutty McFirefighter,” Levi said.

“What are you talking about?” Travis seemed annoyed.

Levi said, “At the hospital, there used to be this whole ‘Mc’ thing – McDreamy, McSteamy, Mc-something or other. I didn't know if it’s still a thing." Vic hadn't seen Levi in months; he'd put on some weight. Then again, so had she.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm talking about the Twitter feed that calls me all sorts of names." Vic sighed. “There’s a poll on how many STDs I have.”

“You know it's rumors and crap like that," Travis said, setting the muffins on the table.

“If I learned anything last year was that rumor is as good as truth. Especially if enough people repeat it. A picture’s worth a thousand words,” Vic hefted a muffin.

“It’s probably a smear campaign at you to hurt him.”

“Does it matter? Someone is out there randomly making my life hell. I feel like every shift is worse. A photo comes out, he’s on call, and we can’t even talk about it for 48 hours. Or more because he’s at work.” Vic started eating the muffin.

Levi perked up, “Is it random?”

“What?” Vic’s mouth was full of muffin, mostly unable to speak.

“I said ‘is it random?’ She said it’s worse every shift. Are the photos only released when she is on shift?”

Vic spit out the other half of her muffin and grabbed the schedules off the fridge. They sat down at the table and did some quick dates.

“Levi is right. The pictures are always released when you are at work. Most days Ripley takes call following yours.”

Vic traced her hand across the dates, “They even knew when I worked that short shift last night.” She shook her head. “I scheduled that in with less than 24 hours notice.”

“How are schedules submitted? Who had access to that information?” Levi asked.

“I’m calling Captain Bishop. She’s taking call with A shift again tomorrow so she should be available.”

Maya arrived pretty quickly. “What’s going on?”

“I’ve been on Koracisk’s service for a month and other than making his surgical residents live at the hospital, he’s into patterns. It looks like someone is following Vic’s schedule to post photos while she’s working at Station 19.”

“Show me the schedules,” Maya started studying them.

“So, you’ve been on neurosurgery for a month?” Vic asked, trying to make some small talk as storm clouds gathered over Maya’s face. She hadn’t seen Travis this tense for a long time.

“It’s been two months. If I didn’t get to stop by Trav’s occasionally, I’d either have starved or gained 30 pounds on hospital food.” Levi said.

“Okay, here’s the thing. Not many people should have this. Dispatch only gets the officer on duty usually to keep one person in charge so they communicate with one person. We keep the riding list every time someone leaves on a rig. Payroll gets your total hours after the fact. There’s a schedule hanging in the office and then one submitted to the battalion chief. It keeps another set of eyes on people overworking – like maybe when someone works 7 days in a row and comes down with appendicitis.”

“The captain approved that. And our battalion chief was . . . keeping his hands out of my schedule since Frankel hated Andy.” Vic said. “Can any battalion chief check the schedules?”

“I assume so. The battalion chiefs and assistant chiefs take call and would need to know how much manpower they could expect from which stations. That would all be on the shift schedule.

“So chiefs only have access to this?” Travis asked.

“Or someone’s secretary or assistant,” Vic pointed out. “Peggy has access to almost anything that Lucas writes, including his emails. If there's something he doesn't want her to read, then he separately password protects it. He's the chief. I don't think anybody else is nearly as cautious as he is. Possibly Frankel.”

“Your electronic personnel file is triple password protected. I submit your paperwork by hand and she scans it into your file. . . there’s no protection on the shift schedule because it’s not just you.”

“We need to tell someone.”

“No. We can’t,” Maya said. “Whoever is doing this is at least a captain. Everyone is suspect. Even Sullivan.”

“And Andy,” Travis said. “She and Sullivan are back together. He's the acting Assistant Chief of Operations.”

“He probably followed her schedule electronically when they weren’t together since she sometimes wasn’t in a sharing mood,” Maya admitted.

“You think he's doing this?” Vic said in disbelief. “Luke’s his best friend.” She couldn’t announce that if Andy had been involved, her pregnancy wouldn’t still be a secret.

“I think we need to consider all possibilities. That includes him and Andy,” Travis said. “What if their computers got hacked. Their electronics are the idea sources. He has access to chief level stuff and she has access to Vic at the station.”

“Let’s not throw around accusations. Vic is off for a few weeks. I’ll make a fake note that she’s on administrative leave. People will expect that, sorry. When she comes back, I’ll change her name to something else. Most people don't bother to read the schedule beyond themselves. They care about their assignment and don't plan much further until the day of. Believe me, I know.

“I wish you didn't have to do all of this bullshit." Vic sighed, trying not to rub her belly which she often found herself doing when tense.

“Bigger question is should we tell Chief Ripely?” That questions Maya addressed to Vic.

“No,” Travis answered for her. “I don’t know how he’s handling this but judging by how much he loves her, probably not well. Will he hunt down everyone who could have a copy of the schedule and turn them all to stone with his eyes?"

Vic said, “You're right. We don't have any proof; we have a suspicion. We think there's a pattern, but it could easily be a coincidence. We might be reaching. And, I can't let him put himself out their politically against the department either. Think about it would do if he started accusing the battalion chiefs of sending pictures of me on Twitter?” Luke had said the information that they knew someone from the department being involved was secret.

Everyone sat in silence with no other solutions coming to mind. Maya stood first, “I hate not doing more, but I’ll do what I can. See you, tomorrow?”

“Not Travis,” Levi said. “If you look at the schedule, he’s covering C shift on Monday instead.”

“Okay, then just Vic tomorrow.”

“Yeah, tomorrow,” Vic said. “Last shift. I promise to beat up the rookies.”

“Do you want me to stay?” Travis asked Vic when Maya was gone.

“On my golden weekend?” Levi was surprised. “I mean we can stay. Of course.”

“It’s okay. Thank you for offering, but I’m okay. At least I feel like we’ve done something.” Vic couldn’t ask Travis what was going on with Levi there.

They headed out, and Levi stopped when he noticed something over the door – the Hebrew Blessing of the Home. “Who gave you that?"

“The Wedgewood and Rainer Valley guys," Vic said. "Their wedding present came with a cute card."

“My mom has one of those," he said. “Maybe I should get one for my apartment. That one’s more expensive than the one I would buy.”

"Really?"

"Yeah, that was like 400 bucks," Levi observed. "They must have really liked you."

"Levi, their card. It said something about the first mitzvah. Is it no other gods?"

"It's not. That’s the first commandment," the doctor said, "Did the card say something about ‘taking challah?’"

“It did, but they actually didn't give us any challah. Weird, right?"

“Not weird at all.“ He examined Vic with the medically assessing eye. He hadn't seen Vic for almost 8 weeks. "The first mitzvah is to go forth and multiply."

"Oh."

"When an Orthodox woman makes a big batch challah for Shabbat, she burns a piece of dough about the size of an olive. That is the ‘taking of the challah.’ Then you say a blessing for someone that you want to conceive."

"Conceive?"

"Yeah, it's the Jewish equivalent to a fertility ritual."

Vic said, "That is interesting."  
  
"Is that the type of interesting that I should ask no further questions about?"  
  
"That is the type of interesting that needs to threats of divorce and screaming during engagement parties,” Vic reminded him. “That's the type of speculation that can damage a chief and his wife."  
  
Levi had enough sense to not point out that she was protesting a little bit too much. "That's odd," he said, "because I've already forgotten this conversation occurred. I'll see you later."  
  
“Thank you,” Vic hesitated. He was keeping her secret so she’d better try to help him. “Travis misses you a lot so if you could really focus on him today, it would be good.” all of this is hard enough without more noise.  
  
Something occurred to Vic after Levi left. Not only had the culprit viewed the scheduled, they had to have sent the reporters to Mayhorn's home. They knew where she lived. She immediately went online and put in a call to get a security system installed.

* * *

_Saturday  
  
  
_Vic didn't have to wait long. As anticipated, Twitter was ablaze with pictures from the rookie party at Joe's. Specifically, the moment where Mayhorn greeted her with a hug.

_Chin up. I love you._

She grinned at Ripley's message. No one was going to shake her now. She blocked Twitter and went back to taking her class modules.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully that first part came off as sexy possessive rather than stalker-possessive. It was a fine line with multiple drafts.
> 
> Who is involved in the conspiracy at the department? What is their goal? Is it Andy or Sully? Will Maya break her word to Declan? Is Travis about to dump Levi? How worried should Vic be about Ripely?


	4. Week 19 - The One with the Rage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I was so excited about where I left you yesterday that I went ahead and finished it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated it today - very exciting!

**July  
Vic Week 19 - mango  
Andy Week 32**

* * *

"You seem well," Dr. Wyatt said early Sunday morning, having agreed to a very quiet morning meeting at HQ when most of the staff was out.

"Yes," Ripley said. "It was rough. I stopped coming home and acted out for a few days. I got drunk and smashed a bunch of glasses last week."

"That's it?" She asked.

"Do you need to hear the details of the make-up sex or when I cried afterward?" Ripley faced her unashamed. "Or that my wife finally sat me down and talked some sense into me since I was avoiding her?"

"That worked?"

"I go back and forth. Jealousy, fury, but it's not her fault. I know she's blameless in all of this. She didn't cheat on me."

"I saw the photos," Wyatt gave him a very strange look. "I'm surprised you were taking it as well as you are."

"You think how I acted was ‘taking it well?’ It doesn't bother you that had rough sex with my pregnant wife and then cried afterward?"

"That's not what I meant. You're so in love with her that she could cheat on you, and you'd eventually forgive her. I don't think she did, but that isn't the point." Dr. Wyatt said. "You're actions were understandable - all emotional though not necessarily logical. You blocked out your emotions to work and recognized that when you were around her, you had difficulty controlling those emotions. Which was your way of protecting her and yourself. You seem to have gotten by doing that."

"My coping strategy was okay?"

"’Okay’ may be a stretch, but you seem to have some insight into this. Still, that is not what I am talking about when I said I was surprised how well you were doing."

"I don't understand what you mean."

"Chief Ripley, did you know I'm an expert witness for the city?"

"Expert witness as a criminal profiler?"

"No," she said. "I am called upon to determine sane or insane, or in my opinion of someone's mood is at the time of an incident. I do that type of thing."

"What are you saying?"

“Remember how we discussed you were responding to what were almost imaginary threats? That you took abnormal action in response to regular day-to-day threats of her job? This is a whole different ballgame."

His insides were turning to ice. "What do you mean?"

"None of this is imaginary. Whoever is doing this has a plan. It isn’t random people jumping on the twitter bandwagon. These are all targeted attacks by the same person,” she said quietly. “Frankly, I think your emotions are understandable and completely normal because you’re being manipulated by someone. Whoever it is is very angry. There's a lot of rage."

"Rage?"

"I saw those tweets - even the original one. It's all malicious. This is a targeted attack on your wife. Every single step is planned to do the most harm. Whoever is doing this wants to hurt her and hurt her through you. Worse, they know you well enough to do it.”

"Explain yourself."

"This person hates Victoria. Hates her a lot. And if you weren't able to track down the source within 24-hrs of the first photo, they are calculating enough to hide their tracks.”

“It’s Hannah Fitzpatrick, our ex-PR director. I fired her over Vic. There’s no one else,” Ripley said flatly. “Vic’s never been in a bad relationship or negative high-profile incident. She’s one of my most popular firefighters.”

“She’s ticked off one person her entire life? Truthfully, if she dated you first and went back to her ex-boyfriend, you would have been my prime suspect."

“Me?"

"Yes. This has the edge of rejection in this. Was Fitzpatrick a lesbian?”

“I don’t believe so. . . she had a plan for Vic’s life and how it would work in local politics. I fired her for overstepping one last time about Vic and me. She wanted to advertise my heartbreak about my missing wedding over 200 dead bodies and Vic near death in the hospital. Hard ‘no’ on that."

“Sounds like she’s the one then.”

“It can’t be her. She was fired in February. The stuff that’s been posted is much newer than that. Some of it is from the department. . . “

"I can’t help you there, but this is a starting point. I should warn you. People like this, who think they were wronged . . . they keep firing until they run out of ammunition or until they see her bleed, usually figuratively. Without knowing more, I can't necessarily say that excludes physically bleeding."

* * *

Once Dr. Wyatt left, Ripley paged Francis to his office. He had not expected her to be in the office on Sunday, but Gibson was napping post-shift. She arrived in her trademark khakis and a folder in hand.  
  


“It’s Fitzpatrick,” Ripley said. “She’s the one behind all of this.”

Her lips set in a grim line, “That’s why I’m here. Computer forensics has been working with Alan Hastings and found something.” Francis passed him the folder.

“What is this?

“It’s a Non-Disclosure-Agreement for some photos and a video. There are line items in her expense reports on the same dates for $100,000 in photography in two installments. One is $20,000 and $80,000 in October last year.”

"What makes you think that's not a photographer? PR took photos constantly," Ripley pointed out.

"The photographer is on salary for the city. He works for the mayor, technically. Most of the time I was the photographer, and I didn’t get $100,000. The only other person who had payments out of the PR budget was Vic for overtime and appearances." She hesitated. “The files are missing from Fitzpatricks computer. She copied them and removed them the day before she was fired.”

“Right after Vic confronted her. Why didn’t we find this earlier?”

“She took extra precautions to erase them completely. We only found them because of the dates of the transactions.”

"That doesn't explain all the photos. Just the first ones where she was dating Mayhorn, and doesn’t explain how she’s getting access to members of the department. There has to be more to this." Ripley stroked his beard. "She used city funds for this?"

"Yes."

"Fitzpatrick used city funds to collect blackmail material."

Francis hesitated, "Having been her assistant, I suspect she first planned on keeping it out of sight to not ruin the PR story. Then when she couldn't control of you or Vic, she was going to use it for collateral. That's why she was certain you would toe the line on her every plan for you two. She underestimated badly."

“It’s a felony. She stole money from the city and falsified accounting records." Ripley was starting to like the sound of this. "Do we know where she is?"

"You fired her for cause so she got a lump sum of her vacation and sick pay and left no forwarding address. We’d have to file charges of theft of city funds to do more searching . . . are we ready for that?”

“No,” Ripley shook his head. “Someone could be helping her from the department so we need more information. Have forensics focus on the sources of the other photos. Where did they come from? How were they sent? There has to be at least another person involved. We can’t tip our hand yet.”

“I agree. It has to be done in the right way at the right time. We need to have clear perpetrators and you and Vic as victims. Technically, Vic could sue her in civil court for defamation of character now, but felony theft of city funds has better chances.”

“Then make it so,” Ripley said. “I need to tell Vic. There’s a video out there that Fitzpatrick thought was worth $80,000. And Fitzpatrick seems unpredictible and aggressive.”

“Sir,” Francis said. “I don’t think you should say anything yet. I love her; she’s my matron of honor and all but someone in her station could be participating. Everyone is suspect . . . even Jack and Travis. If that bad actor gets a hint that Vic suspects them - ”

Ripley tried to give her a hard stare but had to admit her points. “So you can’t tell Gibson and I can’t tell Vic. . . I don’t like it.” Francis started to protest, “I’ll hold off a few days. She has a big exam tomorrow and I don’t want to add more to her plate.”

  
So now all they could do was wait. And wonder what Fitzpatrick's next move would be - and who was helping her.

* * *

*** New section!***

It was the start of a beautiful Monday morning. Maya woke up in Declan’s bed. They hadn't had sex, but that man knew how to use his mouth. They went for a leisurely jog together before she arrived at the station at 8:30. Just in time to see B-shift off and do C-shift morning lineup.

She made herself a nice morning cup of coffee and got the bagel with the team upstairs. She might have been doing some smiling then too. Travis was there having switched around some shifts, and he had a book of what appeared to be Talmudic Ethics of the Jewish People propped in front of his bagel.,

Last year she spent some time on C-shift. It was all guys, and most of them were older. There were one or two younger guys who had sometimes hesitated back when she was Lieutenant to follow her orders, but it seemed better now.

Once the team departed for chores, she knew she was still smiling when she went over to look at their latest response times and paperwork from Battalion Chief Frankel.

“Don't you look cozy?” Travis came in with the trash bag. He must have volunteered for garbage duty today.

“I am feeling pretty good. Energized. Went running this morning,” Maya drank her coffee. It was one of those days where everything was good.

“Energy must mean something different to someone who is training for a triathlon in her spare time. With somebody who doesn't want to date them.”

Maya started blushing, “Actually, I went running with Declan.”

“Oh, did you have a breakthrough with giant giant football player that I've never met?” Travis had heard about Declan since they had gone cycling together.

“Yes,” Maya said. “Finally I can tell someone.”

“I’m your cycling partner. Isn’t this a usual Andy type share?”

“Andy has barely come up for air for the past 2 weeks. Every time I talk to her, she gushes about how good things are going with Sullivan. All of our other discussions are related not murdering Blake. He and Iris have been taking turns on aide car with Andy when Vic’s not around. Vic has paramedic classes and has a few other problems”

“You need me to be Andy or Vic right now?”

“First you need to tell me I can be not the Captain for about 5 minutes.”

“Okay, you are not the Captain for 5 minutes,” Travis said.

“I quit Declan’s gym. He’s not my coach anymore or at least the one I'm paying for. We’re back to dating.”

“Sounds like good news.”  
  


“It was kinda dramatic. I was in the pool after the fireworks thing. I went under during my swim cuz I was too tired. He pulled me out, and we started talking.”

“Do you mean ‘ _talking_ ’ or ‘ _talking_ ,’” Travis emphasized the last words.

“Full body talking.”

Travis stood back slightly, impressed. “You had sex in the pool?”

“We didn't have sex. We touched each other and stuff. The big deal is that we're dating again. Listen the first time,” Maya fake admonished him.

“So you guys are exclusive?”

“We haven't put a label on it yet. After my swim lesson yesterday, we just kind of screwed around in the pool. Not the sexy kind. Well, it was sexy because he could pick me up and throw me in the air and then catch me again.”

“So Dirty Dancing sexy,” Travis agreed.

“It's so refreshing. He’s there because he wants to be. I'm there because I want to be. We’re having fun together. No issues with the job. No worries about command. No problems that he dated like two of the members of my station. No pressure to have sex – we’re doing all the stuff that’s not sex. He gets behind me and - “

“Stop. I don’t need straight or lesbian sex details. Couldn’t you tell the ladies at Grey Sloan about this instead?” Travis half-covered his ears.

Maya sobered. “Have you noticed that something is going on there? Dean, he hasn't been himself.”

“He did use his angry tone at Blake. But everybody uses their angry tone at Blake.”

“Something is off. He hasn’t said anything, and Jack doesn’t live there anymore. I don’t know what’s going on with Jack either, other than that Francis won’t talk to him about anything department related. David and Kat won’t go near each other during a shift so they may have broken up.”

“She wasn’t happy about his interview.”

“I know. There’s actually no policy issues with him having dated Vic while he was at another station. It wasn’t even reportable. His dating Kat is a little worse but still not required to report. All three of them filled out forms anyway last week, but it comes down to me if I want to transfer one them because of shift cohesiveness.”

“I love the bright spot in all of this is that Andy hasn’t broken up with Sullivan for almost a month,” Travis joked.

Maya was careful with her next sentence. “Are you in Levi doing okay? I kind of got this weird vibe at Vic's house.”

“It was nothing. I missed him, and hadn't seen him for two months. This weekend was good. It was really nice except for that whole somebody spying on Vic thing.”

Maya was about to walk on very shaky ground. “I’ve noticed you reading a lot of Jewish books, and you started kosher cooking. Do you think you are trying to change yourself for Levi?”

“That’s not fair. Aren’t you changing yourself for Declan? The Maya I know would never put up with a sexless relationship. You’re the type who is having loud public sex and taping yourself.“

“It’s NOT sexless, and I don’t have public sex or make sex videos,” Maya said. “It’s not bad that I’m waiting to have sex with him. And you are avoiding the question. You and Levi.”

“Everything is fine. I have lots of free time these days to take cooking classes and spend some time learning at the JCC. Vic’s married and half time. Levi’s got tons of work at the hospital. You and I can only go cycling so often. And I’m not reading the Jewish books just because of Levi. They have some really interesting stuff in there about LaShone Hara.”

“The what?”

“It's Hebrew for the evil tongue. As in gossip. Especially the mean-spirited type.”

“You are a keeper, Trav. Any wisdom that you care to share?”

“Not yet. It mostly discusses all the types of gossip and how it destroys people. Frankly, it’s kind of a downer because it makes me more angry for Vic each time. Look at all the people that are hurting from this. Vic, Ripley, David, Kat. Maybe Dean and Maggie. Definitely comes between Francis and Jack.”

“Sullivan had it so easy. Just me and Jack and Vic and the Chief, such simpler times,” Maya philosophically finished her coffee.

The good day was shattered when she received a text message from Declan. _Bad news on Twitter._

“Oh shit,” Maya went to Twitter. The trending items in Seattle were **#VictoriaHughesNaked** **#KeepRidingHer Chief** and **#VictoriaHughesPornStar**.

“Shit shit shit.” Maya didn't want to, but she clicked on the YouTube link. The banner flashed making sure she was 18 years old.

There was a 4-minute video. First, there was a wide shot of Vic and Ripley making out by Vic’s Jeep in a parking lot at night. The two of them were all over each other. The video proceeded to watch them climb into her car, flip the seats down, and start having doggy style sex.

Unfortunately, Vic was topless and in better lighting than Ripley. While it was clear the chief was having a good time, nothing compared to the way Vic was being pleasured as she was pounded with her hands on the dashboard. The situation wasn't helped at all since someone added some very porny ‘boom-chicka-wah-wah’ music to the background.

She advanced the cursor because she really didn’t need to watch this. Then she stopped when it suddenly changed. The next section was a close up with sound. A lot of sound. The words were unintelligible, but it was enough to get the sense that Vic was a screamer, and Ripley could do amazing things with his cock. Maya fast-forwarded to the end and shut off the screen, mercifully halting the viewing experience.

“Where's Vic now?” she asked.

“Taking her paramedic midterm exam. I'm sure she doesn't have her phone on her. Unless she saw it before. Does this mean we were wrong? They aren't following her schedule?”

“Or they are. I’d have difficulty taking a test if I knew everyone in Seattle leave thought I was an amateur porn star. Oh, God.” Maya picked up the phone. “I'm calling Chief Frankel, Francis, and Chief Ripley. I want you to go upstairs and make sure no one on C-shift is tempted to fucking open YouTube right now. If anyone is, bring them to me.’

Travis was gone for exactly 2 minutes. She’d barely had time to talk to Frankel.

“You need to come upstairs now, Captain. Right now. Walk quietly,” Travis was pale and shaking.

They tiptoed up the stairs together to the lounge, and Maya stopped short. The rest of C-shift was sitting on the couch, and someone was streaming YouTube onto the widescreen Smart TV. Sure enough, they were watching the entire video, including her C-shift lieutenant, Tutko.

Maya waited a couple of seconds. She listened to C-shift discuss how many guys Vic had slept with in the fire department, how much sex they thought A-shift was having, and whether or not any of them should go swap to A-shift and try out Vic.

“I've heard enough,” Maya announced after a graphic comment about Vic’s ability to give head. Eight guilty faces turned back to see their captain. “What in the blind fucking hell do you think you guys are doing?”

Silence answered her. “You think this is funny? Do you think that this is okay to happen to one of your own? Do you think this is what women are for? All of you are suspended right now two weeks no pay. Leave the station now.”

Lieutenant Tutko said, “Suspended?”

“Yes. I don't even know if any of you will have jobs in two weeks. _I warned all of you._ You guys knew someone in our station was being ambushed. Being deliberately embarrassed. You think this is a **FUCKING JOKE**? Most of you are married. Do you want your home porn shared with everybody? Your grandma? Your kids? Your ex-girlfriends? Maybe we should interview all of your ex-girlfriends and see what they had to say about your penis. I’ve seen half of them here and trust me you're not impressive.”

“We're sorry, Captain,” Tutko apologized.

“You should be. Get the fuck out of my station. We'll communicate after I talk Battalion Chief Frankel.”

The whole shift filed out, stunned. Maya took note of which guy had been streaming the video because he quickly turned off his phone. That was the guy that she would come down on the hardest.

Travis was gaping, “You just sent the entire shift home for two weeks. Are we going to fight fires with the two of us today?”

“No. We’ll cover aide car. You call dispatch while I call Frankel again. Tell dispatch that Station 19 is not in service until tomorrow for anything except aid car.”

“You think the Frankel’s is going to be okay with suspending them for 2 weeks?” Travis was pissed, but he hadn’t expected this.

“I think they should praise their lucky stars I wasn’t Frankel. She had fired them all on the spot.”

As soon as they got off the phone, there was a call for aide car. This was going to be a bad day.

* * *

Ripley was clenching his jaw so tightly he though his teeth would snap. Francis was in his office and had given him an update. He instantly knew where the video had been taken the second he saw it – blurred on the Twitter. They had been outside the Astro dinner which answered why Cameron, the manager, had recognized them on their second visit. And why the sweet man had thought they were married.

“It’s the number one video on Porn Hub. I’m getting YouTube to take it down, but it’s already been viewed about 14 million times this morning,” Francis spoke hesitantly.

“I want you to cancel all of my meetings for the rest of the day. Reschedule them whatever. Tell Peggy.” He shoved his chair back and picked up his cell phone and keys.

“What are you doing Chief?” she said quickly.

“I'm working from home today,” he snapped.

“Are you sure that's wise? The plan was to keep ourselves above this. Show that the department is not affected by this type of attack. Keep Fitzpatrick from making you bleed.”

“Screw the plan!” he growled. He ran his hands over his hair, trying to take a deep breath. “I'm sorry. That was inappropriate, but I'm done with the plan. It's my wife they're hurting. It's my wife who Fitzpatrick and whoever is helping her is going after. I'm not going to let her be by herself. We need to stop focusing on the plan and think about our people. I listened to you and didn’t tell her about Fitzpatrick or the video.”

“That's because we don't enough yet on Fitzpatrick! We have to -”

“Keeping Vic in the dark isn't helping things. I'm not going to sacrifice Vic for my career or the department. _If you think that, then you might as well be Fitzpatrick_.”

Francis flinched. “You're right. You're right. I should have asked both of your opinions on this right away about what you wanted to do. You're my boss, tell me what you want to do.”

“Right now I want to go home and be with my wife. That's what I want. We will talk about what we want to do. And I will get back to you.”

“So right now you want the department to say nothing,” she confirmed.

“Right now you can continue to say the department doesn't get involved in our the personal lives. We're investigating the origin of the photos and the videos. I'm not staying away from Vic anymore. Not for this.”

* * *

Ripley found her curled up on the couch.

“Hey, Eggy,” he sat, resting his hand right next to hers.

“You sure you want to be near me? I'm an alcoholic nymphomaniac whore and you’re just taking advantage of what slutty me is offering freely to every member of the fire department.”

“You're my wife, and I love you. Nothing has changed.”

“According to Twitter, you should be getting some STD testing right now. There are polls running on how many times I’ve cheated and if I was part of a gang bang.”

His eyes blazed and he uttered a set of expletives that she rarely heard him use. “It’s Fitzpatrick. She's the one who's doing this.

“How? Why?” Vic sat up taller.

“This weekend we found out she bought photos of you and Mayhorn when you were dating. It looks like she bought a video too. She has NDAs about them from last October.”

“She held on to them. She managed our image for months, and all along she had these files.” Vic had difficulty believing that.

“We think that’s why she was so confident before the wedding. She may have planned to use them to blackmail me over you.”

“What did I do to her? She kept trying to interfere with us. You fired her. Not me.”

“She copied them the day before she got fired. After you yelled at her and told her to butt out. I’d guess she felt she needed a backup plan in case I decided to pick you over the department.”

“I guess maybe I shouldn’t have yelled at that conniving bitch.” Vic wasn't feeling all that sorry right now.

“No, I should have fired her sooner,” Ripley said.

“So this is all her?”

“No,” Lucas said, “We're still figuring out the sources of all the photos and how she does it. Can you think of any more possible blackmail material Fitzpatrick might have?"

"At least we always had the sense not to send each other nude selfies on your phone," Vic said, trying to find a bright side. "I was thinking of all the places not in our homes that we've had sex. Turn-out room, engagement photos, giant mansion, my bunk room, captains office, your office, parking lot of Astro, parking lot of Dave & Busters – though if someone taped that one, we didn’t get naked. Anything blackmail-ish on you?"

"There's probably some photos of me shutting down bars with the team, but, only you've been ever able to get me . . . less controlled in public. There's probably a bunch of photos of Eva with people who aren't me, but the kind of goes back to why we're divorced. If none of that stuff came up when I was put up for chief, I should be in the clear. "

Vic rubbed her neck, “The good news is I didn't find out until after my test is over. That was good.”

“I’ll take that good news.” She let him cuddle closer to her.

“This video doesn't tell anybody stuff people already weren't saying. Vic Hughes-Ripley has amazing boobs and really enjoys sex. Particularly with the guy I married. According to the comments section on YouTube, that must be the only reason you married me.” Vic was beginning to come out of her depressed funk.

“It’s not the only reason I married you. It is a nice facet of the diamond of being married to you.”

“Now, that was greeting card corny,” she laughed, relaxing both of them.  
  


“What do you want to do now Eggy?” he said. “I can’t make 14 million people unwatch the video.”

“It’s probably five million people and one million teenage boys watching it on repeat. Hopefully, they learned something. “ She turned to Ripley. “I think we have to put on a public appearance. You need to call Francis. Have her schedule it.

Lucas went still. “Is that what you want? To be-”

“Yes. I won’t take this laying down. I'm going to own everything. Be the person Fitzpatrick wanted me to be.” Vic was referring to Fitzpatrick's goal of having Vic participate in PR in a way that enhanced her public image. The unflinching perfect wife on Ripley's arm.

“I'll call Francis now.”

“Wait,” Vic pressed a hand into Lucas's chest. “First let's go to the bedroom, see if we can re-enact that scene.”

Because that was who Victoria Hughes-Ripley was. She was not going to be ashamed of loving Lucas or what she did with him. She was not going to be ashamed of her past. No one was going to make her feel that way. Least of all a crazy bitch like Fitzpatrick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't resist. What do you think is going to happen next? Were you ready for that reveal? How many times would you watch it on YouTube - especially if it were Brett Tucker and Barrett Doss?


	5. Week 19.5 - The One with the perfect dress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The week continues as Vic and Ripley take steps to control their story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI, like many people, I am never watching Station 19 since the Season 3 Vic disaster and Ripley erasure that has occurred. You should catch me mocking the showrunner midway through. The worst parts of Grey's have been brought to Station 19 and I've given up. I promise that I will finish this piece for everyone as promised - however, I am going to focus on my other writings that will bring these stories to life in a better format.

**Still July**

**Vic Week 19- Mango**  
**Andy Week 32**

* * *

_Tuesday night_

“Why are you giving me that face?” Maggie asked Meredith after dinner.

“You're home again,” Meredith observed. “You’ve been home a lot lately. I haven't minded the kid babysitting, but what’s going on?”

"I live here. I don't pay rent, but I have a room and my stuff lives here too."

"Right," Meredith commented. "Cuz I'm pretty sure I've noticed you wearing like the same for outfits at my house, almost like all of your stuff lives somewhere else, and you're living out of an overnight bag."

"I want to know what you think about one-night stands,” Maggie blurted out.

"One night stands? You cheated on Dean or Dean cheated on you?"

"Nobody cheated on each other. But with the Ripley and Vic cheating thing, it came up. He had a low opinion of people who cheated, and he said he definitely recommend one night stands over cheating. I pointed out that I was a product of two people cheating, and it may be cheating is genetic for me, or maybe he's just the type that loves one night stands.”

“Oh,” Meredith sat down next to her at the table. “Are you ready for some sisterly advice and discussion?”

“I could use that.”

“I had had tons of one night stands when I discovered that Derek and Addison were married to each other. He picked her over me.”

“Going out and seeing somebody after getting dumped, that's understandable,” Maggie was compelled defend her sister’s past life . . . to her sister.

“It was weird, but I'm not sorry about any of it. I did make choices that went great. I slept with one of my classmates; it was terrible. Another of my one-and-dones needed an emergency neurosurgery the following morning. He got to tell Derek all about sex with me.”

“What kind of sex were you having?”

"He had a neuro tumor that gave him a constant hard-on,” Meredith half-smiled.

“It had to be awkward.”

“The point is though that it wasn't the issue that I was having one night stands. It was an issue that it showed how messed up my personal life was. Some of these one night stands affected my work. Did Dean ever say he ever wanted to see any of those people again or that he was involved with them?”

"No," Maggie admitted. "He said he hadn't had one for years."

"So what does it matter? You met him when he was dating Nikki who publicly broke up with him."

“I know, but with my cheating genes and his one-night stands, how do you ever think these two people belong together?”

“Christina and Owen cheated on each other,” Meredith said.

“They did?" Maggie was surprised.

“If you need to be technical, Owen cheated first because she didn’t want to have kids. They were separated or divorced and he started seeing other people during her fellowship. And then she slept with one of her residents. Once he married Amelia, they started doing that weird cheating love triangle that now involves Link, Koracick, Teddy, and Amelia and an unknown number of babies. The point is, knowing his dating life is a bloodbath, does that change your opinion about him professionally? Or personally?”

Maggie was quiet again. “I guess not. He's always been looking for that thing, and now I think the kids might be the thing.”

"It's possible that Dean was looking for something and didn't find it until you."

"I hate it when you make sense. I feel all sad and pathetic,” Maggie said.

"All you needed to do was apply some logic. Do you have any reason to believe that he is not faithful to you?"

"No."

"Do you have any reason to believe that you are not going to be faithful to him?"

"No."

"Has he ever shown even an ounce of jealousy toward DeLuca? Or Avery?"

"No."

“So use some logic and review the situation,” Meredith advised.

“Conclusion is . . . I’m neurotic and insecure.”

"You said that not me." Meredith patted her on the arm. “Our mother was a person good or bad that always wanted someone who understood her and got her. She wasn't perfect. Neither was my father. Neither was your father. But I'd like to thank that I do some things better than she did and that I'm not doomed to repeat her mistakes. And neither are you.”

"What do I tell him?"

“You should go with ‘sorry for being distant, had a lot to think about and I choose you.’ I found ‘I choose you’ works really well. If you want try 'Pick me. Love me.' Try that too.”

“Okay, I am texting him that I’ll see him tomorrow morning.”

* * *

_Wednesday morning_

A-shift went to the lounge to turn on the morning show after their shift. Dean had decided to go home instead. He seemed out of sorts, so it was probably better he wasn't around. He might have also threatened to murder everyone on C-shift.

They gave Andy a recliner and a whole bunch of hands gave her pillows to make sure she'd be able to stand up. “Guys, I'm pregnant, not disabled.”

Kat and David were sitting on opposite sides of the couch with Jack and Travis in between them. Blake and Iris sat on the floor. Maya stayed downstairs and turn the TV on in her bunk room.

* * *

Dean did not like being grumpy. Grumpy was a thing that Jack did. Grumpy was a thing that Sullivan did. Andy could do it too. But Dean felt that being grumpy was generally a waste of time.

Why was he grumpy? Because it had been weeks, and his girlfriend seemed to have ghosted on him.

So he couldn't say ghosting exactly. She sent him daily text messages about what she was doing and why she wasn't sleeping over. On her days off she'd sometimes bring snacks to the station which somehow didn’t match the days he was working.

Now they hadn't had sex for 2 weeks. Granted she was covering the night shift, but she’d done that before and made it a priority to come see him. Yes, they had only been dating for 6 months. And using Jack and Francis as comparisons was probably not healthy. Still, he really wondered if this was a slow-motion break-up.

Part of him felt that maybe he was being treated unfairly, but he couldn't exactly claim that he'd come across great either. He'd known that Maggie Pierce was a serious person. She was careful with her heart and really wanted to be careful with the people around her. It was certainly hard for her to hear that he had not always done so.

He arrived at home and turned on the TV. Everyone else was going to be watching the Ripleys on the morning show.

  
As pathetic as it sounded, he put out a set of checkers. Weird as it was, when Maggie was actually present, their morning routine together was to drink coffee and play checkers. He was a pretty good player, but she usually wiped the floor with him. Her text message last night said she was coming.

His front door unlocked with Maggie entering. He quickly muted the TV.

Hi,” Maggie set two cups of Starbucks down in front of them. “Can I join you? I mean I want to join you,” she clarified.

“You have your own key. It’s a standing invite,” he said.

“I know, but things. I mean, can I be black today?” she selected her side.

“Only today,” he quipped. “I'll be white, but don't think I'm going to go easy on you.”

They played in silence for a couple of seconds.

“Dean,” Maggie started to say after she took one of his pieces.

"Maggie," he said. "Did you come here to talk or play checkers? I mean we can try to do both, but I'm ready to talk."

"You want to talk because I was going to talk if you would let me talk. It depends on who wants to talk first."

"I need to know if your talk is going to break up with me before I start my talk. If you're planning on breaking up with me, then we don't have a lot to talk about right now."

"My talk was not going to talk about breaking up with you,” Maggie said, double jumping him.

"Okay. Here goes. I think that part of you is mad at me for how I used to date women. That I was big dumb and stupid, hooking up short-term with rescues and stuff. How to you it makes me seem like an ass, which is completely deserved. But that was then. As much as I hate to say it, my mom was right. Can't be a man-child forever. And I tried it with Nikki, but she wasn't the right one. And you and I now have lasted longer than me and Nikki. So, I want to make this last longer. Let you meet my whole family this time."

"That was a lot of talking,” Maggie agreed. "I was not going to talk that much."

He said, "Should I take some of that back?"

"No, no, no, no,” She said, “I liked it - that you see yourself continuing to date me."

"You look frightened, at least that part came through,” Dean said.

Maggie took out a notecard from her bag. “I actually wrote down things to say. With Mere's help.”

"How small is the handwriting on that card?" He asked since Maggie was known to be very detailed.

"You don't get to know. Okay, here goes." She started reading off the card. "Dean. I am really sorry about being so distant. I have emotional stuff about my family’s long history of cheating and bad romantic decisions that I needed to unpack, and it's not your problem. I'm sorry for freezing you out.”

"That's it that's all you wrote on on the card?”

"Well, one couple more things.” She leaned forward over the checkerboard and gave Dean a big kiss. They had very little contact for the past few weeks so it got hot quickly.

"It said that on the card?" Dean asked when he could breathe again.

Maggie blushed, "It says kiss him and then stare into his eyes. And go on to bullet point B."

Dean held Maggie’s hands across the checkerboard and stared into her eyes, “Okay, I'm ready for bullet point B.”

“Well next, it says I’m supposed to say ‘pick me, choose me, love- oh my goodness is that Ripley and Vic on the TV!?” She dropped his hand and grabbed the remote to unmute the TV.

* * *

Newday Northwest was invited for a special interview at the Seattle Fire Department HQ. The interview was being held in Francis is office. There was a whole mixture of breakfast pastries coffee and numerous branded Newday Northwest and Seattle FD coffee mugs and throw pillows and rugs. It was implied that this was Ripley's office they were being interviewed in since real Ripley’s office was utilitarian and full of file cabinets. His nameplate had been hastily set on Francis's desk. The walls had been redecorated with a lot of the classics from Ripley's office, including several pictures of his engagement and wedding.

The camera crew was setting up, and the staff was putting the finishing touches on hair and makeup.

Francis seemed startled when she saw Vic come in for the first time. That outfit Vic had chosen to wear was rather familiar – a sheathe dress with a big sweater wrap. After all she and Latoya, who was teasing Vic’s hair into a perfect curly crown, had designed it and made the outfit book for her.

Appearing much more confident, Francis to give instructions, and Vic stopped her. “Luke and I talked about what we're going to do. We’ve got it.”

“Okay,” Francis apologized, “I'm sorry I told him to stay away from you.”

“I understand why you did what you did. Wasn’t it a lot easier back when all you had to ask me was my favorite color and perfect date night?” Vic tested the strength of the hairband Latoya had used.

Lucas walked in wearing his friendliest khaki and blue sweater combo. He took Vic’s hand and led her to Francis’s couch as the host, Faith Larson, sat in the chair across from them.

“In 3-2-1,” the director read off with Francis standing behind him.

“Good morning and welcome to Newday NorthWest. I’m your host, Faith Larson, and we have a very special show for you this morning. We are filming from Fire Chief Lucas Ripley’s office with his wife Victoria Hughes-Ripley. As you can imagine, everyone wants to know all about how things have been going since they got married in March.” The reporter had this expression that wasn’t exactly a grin. More of a showing of teeth like a predator

“Thanks, Faith,” Lucas gave his best smile. “I don't know how anyone could believe that I've want insanely happy to be married to her.”

“Going on six months,” Faith supplied.

Vic gave her an even brighter smile. “Well, it's really been over a year and a half since we were legally married. It has been six months since that lovely vow renewal.”

“It must have been a busy year for you,” the host said. “All of that ramp-up to the wedding, and then the shooting with her near-death experience, and now these rumors.”

“Oh, you mean the rumors that I'm cheating,” Vic pretended to be confused.

“There have been rumors of impropriety between yourself and some members of your station. If you believe gossip. Or that sort of thing.”

“Yeah you meant my ex-boyfriend, David Mayhorn? Great guy, excellent firefighter. Sometimes things don't work out. He’s a member of my station now. I heard you have some pictures of us dating two years ago and having a few drinks with the rest of the group.”

“Allegedly it was more than a few drinks. Some people have even suggested that Station 19 is a drunken orgy. In fact, this is from a viewer, Crista Vernoss, ‘Station 19 is revolving door of drunken beds between multiple people. No one remembers anything from last year.’”

“That is an interesting observation,” Vic agreed. “And perhaps in the mind of someone delusional like Crista, I am an empty-headed slut that bounces from one person to another completely forgetting Ripley. She’s probably written an entire improbable storyline that would make people hate me.”

“Also it’s been suggested that you are an alcoholic. Is there any truth in that rumor?” Faith asked.  
  
“The last drink I had was at my bachelorette party. You have a few photos of that. Luna Rodriguez and Kat Noonan attended that one too.”

“Oh, they were there? So you didn’t have any alcohol after your marriage – I mean – vow renewal,” Faith sounded doubtful.

“Very unlikely,” Lucas decided to step in. “She lost so much weight after the shooting that she has been on a strict diet from her doctors. Victoria has been very careful and controlled about things.”

“It seemed that control isn’t exactly something she’s known for. The alleged video of her with you in the car.”

“Wait. I’m cheating on Lucas yet so horny for him I can’t keep my panties on? Which is it?” Vic kept going without letting the hostess speak. “I mean, look how hot he is. Who would turn him down? Yet it’s still boring because some creep taped us doing what husbands and wives do. So salacious. Should we have added a third person or props?”  
  
“So despite a sex tape and photos of her with her ex-boyfriend wearing her wedding ring, you deny that you are on the rocks? Even in the light of photos of you two feuding?”

Vic raised her eyebrows and turned to Ripley. “We’ll have an occasional argument,” he said. ‘I was worried after she was in the building full of carbon monoxide. That is why Battalion Chief Frankel typically oversees her calls.”

The host was unconvinced, “I hear you but this photographic evidence seems like things are harder than you two thought they would be. You two seemed unhappy at the recent fireworks explosion.”

Ripley said definitively. “I'm in love with Victoria Ripley, and we are happily married. She did not get drunk and cheat on me with David Mayhorn.”

“He didn’t sound so sure when they asked him when the two of them slept together last. She's wearing her wedding ring in those photos. She could have been so drunk she didn’t remember either.”

“That was a team event and numerous witnesses say nothing happened between the two of them. Vic wasn’t drinking.” Ripley let a note of annoyance enter his tone.

“There seems to be plenty of evidence of her partying and drinking in excess. How can anyone be certain of anything?” The host pressed on.

“Because I'm 19 weeks pregnant.” Vic dropped her sweater and stood up. The position displayed her belly to fabulous effect. There was sudden silence on all sides of the camera. She also released pulled the band out of her hair and her insanely puffy pregnancy hair framed her face perfectly.

“Oh,” Faith gasped.

“Before you do the math, that would mean it was right around our wedding night. The second one.” Ripley stated with one hand on Vic’s belly.

Faith was still trying to find words. Ripley stood up and embraced Vic. “When is the babies come, you’ll see,” Vic smile-spoke.

“Babies?” Faith was having trouble recovering her composure..

"Yes, babies,” Vic confirmed. “We're having triplets. So if you wondered why he may have seemed over-cautious about my health, now you know. I'm having three fire chief babies."

"I love you and these fire chief babies," Lucas went off script and gave her a very long kiss. Vic recognized the necessity - and besides, public or not - he was a damn fine kisser.

Eventually, they released each other and saw Faith fanning herself. “Congratulations. This is amazing news.” She had pulled herself together and realized she was scoring the reporting coup of the month – or year. “Tell me what you have planned. Where are you going to deliver? What are your plans for the nursery? Are you selling your house?”

The rumors of cheating where completely dropped and the rest of the segment involved an animated discussion about the Ripleys' future children.

To make sure that he put every rumor about his concerns to rest, Ripley decided to act like he did at home with Vic. He let Vic talk and positioned himself next to and slightly behind her. His left arm went around her back and his right rested on top of the baby bump. Every once in awhile he'd give her neck a kiss which would make her stop talking to give him a little kiss back.

The ratings took off and the atmosphere of the internet changed.

_They will have amazing hair. So cute. Love me some fire babies. So in love_. #BabyBabyBaby. #vicleybaby

* * *

Francis quietly walked into Ripley’s actual office and did several quiet fist pumps. Her star couple had come through. It would difficult for anyone to publicly say negative things about a married pregnant mom especially when it was clear that these two were head over heels.

Station 19 erupted off the couch and Andy breathed a sigh of relief. The secret was out, even if she hadn’t known there were three. No wonder Ripley seemed extra vengeful over the carbon monoxide incident.

Maggie knocked over both cups off coffee on the checkerboard. Dean turned off the TV and carried her into his bedroom.

Sullivan was watching the TV across from his office with the HR girls. He started clapping, startling them.

Alan Hastings beamed at first and then rewound the video playback a few times with a thoughtful expression on his face.

Over at Medic One Ben Warren got a photo from his wife of the doctors of Grey Sloan tossing confetti in the air. All around Grey Sloan, phones were blowing up with the news.

All except Alex Karev. He was sleeping after recording a ‘good riddance’ video to Izzy Stephens and watching some pay per view MMA with his wife Jo.

* * *

Ripley was back in own office when Sullivan stopped by. “Bringing me messages from Hastings?”

  
“No, he’s had me doing all your numbers so we haven’t talked much. This is more of a social call on a personal matter.” Ripley was beaming.

“Questions about my wife’s status should be forwarded to PR with Miss Francis Smith. Any personal discussion must occur after ours, offsite, between friends.”

“Okay, friend, this is a professional problem for you. It's about daycare,” Sullivan said.

“What about daycare?”

“Have you checked into daycare?”

“Not really,” Ripley admitted, “We've been busy with cheating rumors, train programs, carbon monoxide poisonings, and sex tapes.”

“Well, I have. The closest daycare to Station 19 is in Grey-Sloan. It does have long hours, but it has a two-year waitlist unless you an employee of Grey Sloan.”

“Oh,” Ripley was crestfallen.

“Yeah, the other ones wanted you to apply when you found out you were pregnant which did not work out for me. They also may want a kidney.”

“So how can I help you? Do you want to be an employee of Grey Sloan? I can fire you, but I can’t hire you at Grey Sloan.”

“No," Sullivan said. “What if we have a daycare?”

“A daycare? Don’t we both have enough work?”

“I mean we can hire a set of nannies to run the daycare for Hughes-Ripley and Sullivan children.”

“I hope you mean Ripley and Sullivan-Herrera children unless she accepted a proposal recently.”

“I asked and she said she needed time.”  
  


That made Ripley roll his eyes, “I thought you two were back together and that you were ‘together together.’”

“’Being together’ does not mean you're engaged.”

“Even if you're her next of kin and you two went back to doing the thing that got her pregnant to start with?”

“When she'll be ready, she'll be ready,” Sullivan protested. “Damn it, Rip. You got me off-topic. The daycare – if we hire enough nannies between the three of us, we’ll have coverage for any call situation that comes up.”  
  


“I do have to agree that it's a pretty sensible idea,” Ripley said. “How do we start this?”

“I have no idea. I thought of it when I imagined that my best friend and I would have babies at the same time. I wanted to run it by you for an opinion if you were even interested.” Sulivan was being uncharacteristically open.

“I’m interested. Very interested,” The overwhelmingly happy face returned to Ripley, “We're going to be dads. Fathers. Two years ago when you moved back, I did not see this coming.”

“Me neither,” Sullivan said. “Our munchkins might be even closer friends. At last, we both get everything we wanted.”

“Almost everything. I got what I wanted; you're still trying.” Ripley gave Sullivan a thumbs up, still grinning ear to ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully, you found that little interview with Vicley on TV fun. There are clues everywhere since the mystery is not solved.


	6. Week 20 - The One with the 911 Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone has paged the Chief 911 and he has to run to Station 19. What happened to Vic?
> 
> Psych - its a baby shower with a good dose of mood whiplash mixed in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As everyone knows, I am turned off actual S19 completely but I remain dedicated to the stories I'm telling you here. Maybe Season 4 will bring back Brett Tucker since now it seems acceptable for people to 'fake their deaths.' What BS!

**Mid July**

**Vic Week 20 – sweet potato**

**Andy Week 33**

"When were you going to tell me?" Travis asked as Vic had opted to visit the station for lunch the following week. "You made me learn from the morning show." She’d turned off her phone after their TV interview and spent most of the weekend as a recluse.

"Does make you feel better if Jennifer learned that way too?” Ripley's ears were still ringing from the phone call he received from his sister."

"I'm going to be an uncle three times." Travis gave her belly an admiring glance. She had definitely popped in the past few weeks.

"Yes, three times," Vic agreed. "I'm going to push three of these things out of my body. Assuming we even get that far."

"Wait," he said. “That's not the can-do attitude I expect out of Victoria Hughes-Ripley."

"I took my diabetes testing yesterday. We're going to find out the sex of the babies this afternoon, and Dr. DeLuca sounded kind of ominous."

"How ominous? Like waiting for Jaws ominous? The zombies to invade Winterfell?"

"The Winterfell zombie one. You know 'Winter is coming.'"

"Maybe nothing bad will happen."

"I know, but she told us the most of the babies are born preterm and almost definitely by a scheduled C-section."

"A scheduled C-section sounds very safe."

"Yeah, with my luck I'll be like delivering in a snowstorm with Warren doing my c-section in the kitchen or something. I am due in December."

"That never happens," he said.

"Really? Grey had a C-section and a splenectomy in a blackout. Warren performed a C-section in a hallway and killed the mom and the baby, and he also did one in a kitchen without anesthesia." Vic assumed all of his stories were 100 percent true at this point.

"I wouldn't necessarily use the doctors of Grey Sloan as your best example of safe deliveries. I've heard Carina DeLuca is excellent. Let me go get some coffee."

"Sure some non-caffeinated, non-alcoholic, non-PBA coffee."

"That was a lot of 'no's.'" He said "So that's why you've been drinking decaf. Tell me the Chief gave up something."

"I made him give up caffeine. I'm glad my morning sickness at night is gone; I have to take four prenatals every day. Apparently the more babies, you have the more pills you get to take."

When they made it upstairs, she found a baby shower waiting for her. Her whole team including Battalion Chief Frankel was present with balloons and banners.

"Did you forget to invite Lucas?"

"Oh, he'll be here any minute,” Frankel said. “I paged him 911."

"I'm sure he'll love that."

Sure enough, they could hear rapidly approaching sirens. They heard the Chief SUV park and feet running in the door and up the stairs.

His face went from tight with worry to surprised, "That's not funny, Leslie."

"I don't like hearing about my firefighters on Twitter or NewDay NorthWest. Don't worry, Sullivan's on his way to.”

Sullivan came running up the stairs in a panic, “What happened?”

“It's a baby shower for both of you,” Maya announced. “Happy Ripley and Sullivan-Herrera baby shower!”

Frankel shrugged. “I'm here to watch you guys suffer. You two had the audacity to reproduce with two of my firefighters; you guys can sweat it out for a little.”

“Dirty tricks will get you nowhere, Leslie,” Ripley pretended to scold her.

“If you think I was going to fight fair, you clearly don't know me.” She directed her next comment at Sullivan, “You want to have a go at me again too?”

“That’s okay,” Francis interrupted. She signaled Blake, David, Dean, and Jack to start bringing in a huge number of gifts from the bunk rooms. Maya produced a massive blue and pink cake from somewhere. Andy was sternly ordered to sit in her chair.

The front door buzzed.

“That should be the food,” Iris said.

“Good,” Maya said, “Montgomery, why don't you and Stanley go pick it up.” She gave Iris some cash. Travis and Maya were the main architects of the shower and Maya had been in charge of collecting donations.

Travis and Iris went down to reception where they could smell the food. Lo and behold, the delivery person was of all people, Travis's ex-boyfriend, Grant.

"Oh," Travis said, "Hey, Grant. I had no idea." Grant did look good. He'd let his hair grow out some and now sported some dreads.

That made Grant seem slightly disappointed, "You didn't order this?"

"I did. We're having a baby shower," Iris said.

“Oh,” Grant said.

“Yeah, Vic’s pregnant,” Travis said, “It made the news.”

“You're right,” Grant said, “I wasn't thinking. I should have known since they ordered meat.”

Iris was confused, but she started counting out the money. “I think that's everything plus tip.”

Grant was flustered because he said thanks, took the money, and walked out the doors. Iris started gathering up the food. Travis noticed that Grant left his keys.

“Hang on. I'll be right back.” He called out, “Grant - the keys.”

“Oh, crap. I'm sorry. I . . .You know . . . I don't know what I thought.”

“You thought I ordered food so I would get to see you?”

“I don’t know. Possibly,” Grant said. “Doesn't matter. You didn't. It’s fine. You look fine. Even more fit than before.”

“Thanks, I took up cycling since we broke up.”

“That sounds like fun.” Grant’s eyes rested on Travis's left hand for a moment. “You're not wearing it anymore.” He had been very familiar with Trav’s wedding ring.

“Nope. Stopped wearing it about a year ago.” Travis optioned not to mention the ring permanently resided on Ripley’s left hand.

"Have you moved on?" Grant asked, a note of hope in his voice.

“Yes,” Travis said, “I've been dating a doctor almost a year now.”

“That's great,” Grant said unenthusiastically. “Is he taller than me?”

“No, shorter. Younger, too. Works at Grey-Sloan.”

“Well, that's good,” Grant said. “So if you ever get stabbed in the chest, he’ll know what to do.”

“He will,” Travis said. He had to do something now that was probably not particularly fair to Grant, but he needed to make himself clear. “We talked about moving in together. And marriage.”

To his credit, Grant didn’t flinch at Trav’s potshot. “I understand. It was good to see you, Travis. Goodbye.”

“Nice to see you too,” Travis didn’t look back on his way inside.

Iris was waiting for him. Travis was thankful it was her and not Blake or one of his older teammates because she didn't ask any questions.

“Where'd you get that number?” Travis wondered.

“The takeout book. Captain put me in charge of picking out the food. That Korean place did drop-off catering.”

“We better get upstairs. We have to serve this food to the pregnant women while it's hot. Or it kills them or something.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I had some free time to read up on it.” Travis loaded his arms up. The team was still unpiling gifts from the bunkrooms when they to the Beanery.

“Where did you guys sleep?” Vic asked.

“We made a pathway to each bed. The problem is you are having three babies,” Jack said.

“I had no idea babies required so much stuff,” Dean said. “Meredith helped Maggie order some of this.”

The unwrapping portion commenced. They unwrapped a total of eight car seats. A small fight broke out when Andy saw the two pink car seats were hers.

“You gave me two pink car seats. Why?” Andy said crossly.

“Sorry, is it too gender-conforming. . . .Umm,” Maya realized the gender was a secret. “You see . . .”

“I told them,” Frankel said.

“But how did you know?” Andy sounded betrayed.

“It was my fault. I was talking about the baby to HR, and Frankel came by and one thing led to another.” Sullivan admitted as Andy glared daggers at him.

“He wasn’t a hard nut to crack. I assumed if he could tell the whole HR department, I could tell your captain.” Frankel was unrepentant.

Andy took a careful breath, and the team waited to see if she was going to argue with Sullivan and Frankel in front of everyone. Seconds ticked by, and she finally smiled, “Yep, he’s a softie when it comes to the Baby Girl. So yes, it’s a girl, and I won’t kill you all.”

“Besides, you have a car seat for each car, and we were able to get four different colors – pink, green, yellow, and blue – so we won’t get confused about which baby is which. I don’t know the genders of the Ripley babies, but statistically one should be a boy,” Travis was singing the praises of his personal car seat selections.

“Statistically,” Ripley said dryly. “We don’t know yet because we haven’t had that ultrasound.”  
  
“And we haven’t decided if we want to know,” Vic said.

“Actually, Maggie figured that out,” Dean said. “You see, according to her that each event is independent of each other and each has a 1/2 chance of occurring. So 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 is equal to 1/8 chance that your babies will all be one gender.”

“Thank you for applying that logic,” Vic said.

“The point is there that you have a 7 out of 8 chance of getting a multi-gender mix,” Travis said. “Hence the 2/3 gender-neutral selections.”

"I feel like I should have paid attention better in statistics,” Jack said. “I mostly wanted to know how to calculate water pressure."

"Don't worry. I'm taking notes,” Francis said.

"Thank goodness because there seems to be a lot related to this baby thing.” Jack squeezed her hand.

Next, they opened up eight pack-and-plays.

"Actually," May said, "Some of those are not for you. Half of them are actually mine."

“Yours?” Andy asked.

“I figure there's a solid chance that at some point a disaster will strike, and all for the babies will be hanging out at the station. We are going to be ready. We are going to have a diaper changing table, a supply of diapers, appropriate formula in case of emergencies.” Maya stated.

"It's being kept in Ben's old bunk room,” Jack added.

"I thought Blake had that bunk room," Vic said.

"As I said," Jack repeated, "It's being kept in Ben's bunk room.

“I think you guys should hire your own daycare,” Travis said, “That way you don't have to worry about other people's schedules. I nominate Francis vet all of the nannies.”

“I think we better let Meredith vet the nannies. Or Bailey,” Maya suggested. “It seems like she could scare off the bad ones.”

Sullivan and Ripley exchanged a glance. “What was that?” Vic asked.

“We have kind of talked about that. Nanny sharing or daycare, especially with all of our schedules. It statistically unlikely that all three of us will be on call at any given day,” Ripley said.

Dean started, “Andy and Vic share a call schedule, Vic is on call half the time with Andy, Sullivan and Ripley are each separately on call 1 of 9 nights while Sullivan subs in for Operations . . .”

“Okay, so we need to buy four more pack and plays,” Maya interrupted before anyone started debating the call schedule.

“Is there more stuff because there seems to be more boxes here?” Vic asked. She tore up more paper with Andy and revealed four convertible cribs.

“What's a convertible crib?” Dean was reading the label sideways. “It says 4 in 1? 4 whats?”

Sullivan had an answer. “It’s a crib that becomes a toddler bed and then a twin size bed so you don't have to buy another one.”

“That sounds like three, not four. Oh, there’s two versions of the toddler bed. I guess that makes four,” Dean said.

“So we got you one and the Ripley’s three of them for the barracks,” Travis said hopefully.

“The barracks? I like that,” Ripley said.

“We could stack them three high for bunk beds,” Blake suggested, potentially hoping it was a way to get some space back in his bunk room.

“Three high isn’t that great,” David Mayhorn said. “My nieces and nephews do not have three high bunk beds.”

“I'm surprised your mom didn't give you a bunk bed,” Kat said acidly, reminding everyone how well David’s mom had taken his sex life being discussed on the news.

“And diapers,” Andy announced quickly, keeping her ex-rookie from starting a fight with her boyfriend in front of two chiefs. “A lot of diapers.”

“Look at the diaper cake I made,” Travis displayed yet another baby shower creation.

“Did any of you buy us baby clothes?” Vic saw she had everything but clothes including two specialty triple strollers.

“Meredith said not to. She said that people kept giving her gifts the entire time she was pregnant the first time, so clothes are kind of pointless.” Maya said.

“Yes," Ripley's said grimly, “The administrative staff is so excited about the pregnancies, I'm worried that when I get back my office will be filled with baby clothes.”

Frankel shrugged, “I had nothing to do with that except telling them which stores have the best deals. And I might have told the people in HR how much you like pink and lace, Sullivan.”

He pretended to growl at her. “Bring it.”

“He's going to have to hire you sometimes to babysit, “Ripley quipped. “I bet Trevor would love it.”

She pointed her finger at him, “You think that's funny.”

“Oh, I will. It is a total statistical possibility that Sully and I will be on call at the same time so I think we can drop off for the babies at your house. Do you need four pack and plays?”

“I call the Chief and acting Operations Chief one time with 911 and all I get is back talk.” Hastings was back, but had been unavailable often to Sullivan so he had been taking the calls.

“Children,” Francis said, “I got plenty of requests on Twitter about where the Ripley's are registered. Should I have all the stuff shipped Frankel's house?”

"Traitor," Franklin cursed.

“I hired her,” Ripley pointed out. “She’s team Vicley.”

It was funny that at some level there were two conversations occurring between the people from headquarters and the rest between station 19. Still, there was a certain amount of comradery between the groups. Even Ripley seemed to be thawing toward Andy a little.

Francis said, “You know if you guys give me a list of your hours and stuff that you want in a nanny, I can help make arrangements to start finding coverage for the for the Ripley-Sullivan-Herrera daycare.”

“That would be a godsend,” Sullivan admitted, “Did you already start your list, Luke?”

“Back to sleep and mandatory vaccinations,” Ripley said. “Clean police record.”

“CPR and first aid certified,” Vic added.

“I don't think I did that much vetting on my last three girlfriends,” Maya said. Suddenly as Franklin gave her a look, she made a clarification. “I am dating Declan right now though. Very happy.”

Frankel softened, “Yeah, I know.”

Clean up commenced, and Francis chatted with Vic, Maya, and Andy about setting a date for a wedding shower. Maya shot down one of the weekends suggested since she wasn’t going to be in town. They settled on a later date closer to the wedding between Andy’s and Vic’s due dates.

“Andy,” Vic said. “I know stuff between you and Luke have been sort of rocky.”

“Yeah,” Andy said. “I thought we weren’t talking about it.” She said quietly watching their two partners carry trash bags down the stairs.

“Do you and Sully want to have dinner with us? Just the four of us. No one on call. No work talk.”

“I don’t know. Vic. I know you want everyone to get along,” Andy was reluctant.

“I get it, but I think it will do wonders if Ripley sees you and Sully together. That your . . . on team Sullivan.” Vic said delicately.

Andy thought about how everyone had waited for her to lose her temper with Sullivan when he’d let slip the gender of the baby. Time for her to grow up. “Okay. Team Sullivan can have dinner with Team Vicley.”

“Good.” Vic slowly got up. “I’ve got an ultrasound with Ripley now anyway. The gender for us - it’s top secret.”

Downstairs Jack pulled Ripley aside, “I got you a baby gift.” He opened a bag and handed his chief a taser.

“That is a taser. Don’t you think it’s a little early for them to learn riot control?”

  
“Let's be serious here," Jack said, "I'm worried about this Fitzpatrick situation."

“Francis told you?”

“After the baby thing, absolutely.”

“Nothing has happened since our announcement,” Ripley kept his voice low, making sure no one else in the station was nearby.

“You think she’s gone? I only ever saw her from afar, but everything Francis has said tells me that woman is evil. She's already come after Vic; Francis could be next.”

“You think she’d go after Francis?”

“You gave Francis her job. Every time Fitzpatrick spills the tea, it’s my woman in the limelight. Shouldn’t I be worried?”

Ripley groaned, "Damn it, I wish this crazy did not make sense. I don’t know if my therapist is going to yell at me or give me a thumbs up."

"Yeah, mine too," Jack said.

"At least they're legal," Ripley hefted the taser. It wasn't in the gun shape, but a handheld size palm-sized, perfect for a purse.  
  


"Yep," Jack said. "Legal for self-defense or if you're an on-duty public safety officer, which there's a solid chance they could be."

"Yes, but also it's a felony to assault someone with it,” Ripley remembered but also considered Dr. Wyatt’s warning about real threats and Frankel’s fear that someone could have confronted Vic.

"That's up to Francis. Vic is super pregnant and thus defenseless."

"I am going to keep that out my discussion with Vic when I give her this. I’m definitely waiting till after the ultrasound."

Jack shrugged, "I'm going to do whatever it takes. They didn't survive a firestorm and being left for dead by us for that bitch Fitzpatrick touch either of them.”

* * *

They’d mutually decided not to learn the sex of the babies and Ripley got called away before the appointment was over.

Vic was waiting for him at home with a giant smile. “And what did I miss today?”

“Good-news-bad-news,” Vic said. “I got the results of my gestational diabetes testing today."

“And?” he asked.

“It was a little elevated. Dr. DeLuca recommended I go on a low-carb diet. African American patients have a higher risk of gestational diabetes and higher mortality in the United States so she said we should be careful. Especially since I'm eating for 4.”

"No more bagels at the Astro?"

"No more bagels at our place, but I can still eat the eggy thing."

"And what makes the good news?"

"I can't eat carbs, but you can." She displayed a canister of whipped cream and a plate of sliced strawberries. “So we'll see if we can make you a dessert good enough to eat.”

“Definitely good enough to eat.” He was already stripping off his shirts and pants.

She gave him whipped cream and strawberries and tossed her robe on the ground behind her. “Avoid getting it in my hair. Anywhere else is fine.”

With quality planning he expected out of Vic, she’d already put a second bedspread over their bed. She lay down on the bed, pregnant belly and all. Ripley followed her with undisguised hunger, which was probably not for strawberries and cream.

“You're so beautiful,” he said, “You really do glow and the hair."

“I know,” she laughed, making his heart and other parts swell. "So big. Not as big as my belly but-"

He lovingly ran a hand over her stomach. “As it should be.”

"Are you going to start so you can get a little dirty?"

“I can get dirty,” he said. He shook the canister and sprayed whipped cream across the crest of her breasts, the top of her belly, and the curves of her thighs. He then dropped strawberries in the whipped cream,

“It's going to get stuck in your beard," She mentioned. “If I weren't on the slow carb diet, and couldn't possibly crush you, I would be totally covering you with the cream.”

He gave her his best naughty grin, “This isn't the only cream.” His woman was perfect.

“I hope you're going to make me sticky everywhere,” Vic volunteered.

He answered by leaning forward and lapping at the whipped cream on her chest. It was an interesting sensation of his tongue sliding through coolness of the whipped cream to the heat of her skin. “I think I'm going to get a sugar high during this.”

He moved up to her face, with whipped cream smeared across his mouth, cheeks, and beard and made like he was going to kiss her. She shrieked, “Oh, you're terrible. Remember, no carbs!” He brushed his face against her cheek and lips and leaned forward to lick it off again.

Lucas popped the strawberries into his mouth and swallowed them before this time kissing her for real. It was just that hint of the berry goodness but also a little bit strange since he couldn't press their bodies together and had to kiss her from an angle. For the next 15 minutes, he licked as much whipped cream as he could off of her skin.

It was naughty and sticky and very sexy. His warm hands streamed down her body, getting gooier with each touch. Eventually, he sat her up and pressed his body fully against hers. He didn't seem to care that they were one massive smear of sticky skin.

She tried to shove him back on the bed to go down on him, but he kept her upright. “My cream is not low carb,” he said.

“I don't think that going to be the tipping point,” Vic tried to struggle downward.

“Another time,” he said. “I know where I want my cream to go now. Besides, I want you to be comfortable when you do that.”

Privately Vic admitted that he did have a point. It would have been difficult for her to suck him off on the bed with her shape. She could get on the floor which was more doable but would also get whipped with cream all over their bedroom, too.

She shifted, still horny and eager for more. With some difficulty, she managed to get astride him and impale him. In a few downward strokes, she groaned in frustration. Her belly prevented her from getting the depth that she needed now. Lucas fastened his hands on her hips to push up into her, but once again they hit the belly roadblock.

She was panting, “I need. . . get me some pillows. Cuz I need it right now.”

He complied immediately, helping her get on her hands and knees. He placed a couple of pillows underneath her hips and some to support her belly. However, when he positioned himself behind her, the first thing he did was to not screw her, or at least not with his cock.

Instead, he put three fingers inside of her and the other one to flicked her clit. “Lucas,” she screamed; her body coming immediately, practically against her will. “That's cheating.”  
  


“Cheating?” he said. This time he shoved himself home and waited for her the scream again. They both knew very well that Vic would come a second time in a few minutes. Dr. DeLuca hadn’t been lying about all the blood flow because it was so easy to make her come at this point. Vic would almost certainly come two more times before he came once with almost no effort on his part.

Lucas found it amusing while Vic found it more than frustrating since it was almost embarrassing to be able to orgasm at the drop of a hat. Conversely, Vic was constantly horny so they would do it often, especially now that the rumors were gone.

However, at this moment none of that on her mind. All she was thinking about was how good he felt inside of her and she didn't have to wait very long before she was rappelled into her second orgasm. He bent down over her, bringing his arms to either side of her. With his back pressed against hers, she could feel each breath, and then, to her frustration, he started varying his speed and depth.

“That's really cheating,” she protested.

“I don't think so,” his voice, vibrating through his chest and into her skin, was one part horny and one part amused. “You are a captive audience.”

“So very true.” Just as the pillows kept her body captive, she was captive by the way he made her feel. Then Lucas picked up the pace, but she wasn't thinking again because she was shouting as she was served quality sex again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Predictions - Are Travis and Levi going to make it - or do you even care? Will Jack use the taser on anyone who makes a mean face at Francis. Where is Fitzpatrick? Do you think strawberries and whip cream sound like a good way to deal with diabetes?
> 
> You can also click [ here](https://carinaalyce.com/).


	7. Week 20.5 - The One with the Fire-eating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Since it's Memorial Day weekend, I decided it was a good time for a summer BBQ. If you can't remember [ Summer Preview](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19377220/chapters/46106140).
> 
> FYI, I had originally planned on cutting this chapter completely, but Julrenda convinced me otherwise. <3 Thanks, hun!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For kicks you can read my recent review of Station 19 [ here](https://carinaalyce.com/medical-tv-show-review-station-19/) \- I might be SLIGHTLY annoyed with Season 3.  
> 

**Mid July**

**Still Week 20 Vic - sweet potato**

**Andy Week 33**

_You are invited to now-annual Station 19 Summer BBQ at the Ripley’s. Plus ones welcome. No photos please. In addition to regular awards, there will be a talent show. Meal is barbecue, but vegetarian/kosher options available. BYOB with a keg and sparkling apple cider will be available. Recommend no one goes into labor during the event._

* * *

This year, Travis and Sullivan came over two days early to help Ripley to set up the back patio into a stage. Vic and Andy were both told they were 'to do nothing.' Andy volunteered to paint and was vetoed by everyone.

Ben and Bailey came as his farewell since technically he wasn’t a member of 19. Levi didn’t make it again, but Maggie showed up for Dean. Andy was looking pretty heavy with her baby, and Sullivan hovered around her protectively seeming to glower at anyone who moved too close or too fast to her.

Declan caused a stir when Iris crashed into him. Kat was encouraging, “Don’t worry, last year I poured flour on the Chief.”

That did make Iris start to smile. “How did you pour flour on him?”

“He was refereeing a game that involved flour and water,” Kat started. "It's better not to explain." She linked her arms with David. For Kat, she had such a sunny outlook that grumbling during the baby shower had been all she needed. (Or David made it up to her in other ways.)

“Not this year, too many pregnant people. Also our crowd got a bit bigger now that all these doctors from Grey Sloan started showing up,” Vic walked by, balancing a plate of hamburger buns on her enlargening baby bump. Dr. DeLuca had been right, once she started to show, it didn’t stop. A random stranger on the street would think she was 7-8 months pregnant now.

‘Talent show’ was loosely interpreted by various members of the station. Travis fed everyone a flourless chocolate Passover cake – Andy and Vic split a piece. Since there weren’t any rules, partners and team talent were open. Andy and Sullivan did the salsa, made funnier by watching Sullivan maneuver around her belly. Declan did cheerleading stunts with Maya. Iris and David had a handstand contest – she won. Jack, Blake, and Kat demonstrated (badly) their skill with double-dutch jump-roping.

To everyone dismay, Ben had decided his new skill was fire batons and fire-eating. Bailey was ready to disappear into the ground.

“Okay, Ben! Go for it,” Dean said. “I've got fire extinguisher at the ready.”

Everyone backed up really, really far except Dean who gamely stood off to the side with the fire extinguisher.

"Don't die!" Jack cat-called.

"Please don't set the curtains on fire!” Vic yelled.

“This is in no way Seattle FD sanctioned,” Ripley said. “I cannot watch.” He turned around.

“It will be bad if we have to call Station 23 to put it out,” Sullivan agreed.

Fortunately for all of them, Ben did a passable job and succeeded in eating fire once and only burning three of his fingers.

When you thought it couldn’t be topped, their two resident singers brought it. The assembled group was worried that Dean’s serenade of 'Umbrella' was going to end by Maggie abandoning her rapt expression and dragging him off into the bushes for a quickie.

Still, the tear-wrenching winner had to be Vic singing a breathy, 'babies-pushing-on-my-lungs' version of 'Without You’ from Rent, accompanied by Ripley on guitar. Travis, Sullivan, Andy, and Jack had trouble holding it together in the light of all they had each lost.

_The mind churns, the heart yearns_  
_The tears dry, without you_  
_Life goes on, but I'm gone_  
_'Cause I die without you_  
_Without you, without you_  
_Without you_

Travis got up to announce the awards, wiping his eyes. “You two are going first next year. . . It’s award time and I have to be honest – it’s mostly me. Vic somehow seemed busy, but she did most of the shopping because she only bothers to come to the station occasionally.” Like last year, someone had to be a member of the station for at least six months, which meant Ben would get an award, but David, Iris, and Blake wouldn’t.

“Without further adieu, for the second year running **Most Romantic** goes to Chief Ripley. Technically he was not a member of the station, but he was such a big force at 19, that it’s deserved. Not everyone can pull off a kitten proposal, have divorce threatened during his wedding rehearsal, hold a 72-hour vigil at the bedside of his wife's second serious illness in one year, and still successfully get her pregnant three times. Only you, Chief. So here is your very own Vicley forever necklace.”

“Following that up, we do need to give Victoria Ripley, formerly Hughes, the **Overachiever Award**. Not only did she die and come back to life, she got her own very special twitter hashtags, went to paramedic school, and got pregnant three times.” Vic accepted the three hamburger buns he handed her.

“Kat, you get the **Best Attitude Award**. You thought you were going to a sane station, but you were wrong but smiled through our craziness. You danced Vogue a lot of times, started a fistfight, and bounced back from getting highlighted on the Hughes-Ripley-Mayhorn twitter feed. I think I remember one cranky comment all year, so don’t stop smiling.” She got a smiley face pin.

“Dean, you are the winner of **Worst Texter**. You have the complete and total inability to commit via texting, and we’re glad that Dr. Pierce did not judge you by your texting skills alone. Please learn to communicate with less emojis in the future.” Dean pretended to text his way up to Travis and got his own miniature stuffed emoji.

“This year Maya Bishop is the winner of the **Sneakiest Award,** beating out Vic and Andy for the belly hiding. Bishop was able to facilitate three different relationships by the theft of cell phones, and avoid attending engagement parties that she wasn't invited to.” Maya got one of those fake glasses with mustaches.

“Now I would like award the **Sacrificial Lamb** award,” Vic said. “He is the best friend and secret keeper who will go the extra mile to save you. He's crazy enough to volunteer to drive an armored car into a building. He gave his wedding ring to someone at their fake wedding. We want you to know that we do not undervalue what you have given up for some of us. I love you, Travis.” Vic hugged him while giving him a stuffed sheep.

“Jack Gibson, you get the **Level-Headed Award**. You showed that you can rebuild the pieces from anything and that freaking out doesn’t help anyone. You kept it together at the strip mall enough to use phones to locate people. You took a lot of shit from your future-in-laws, and you've managed to not get cake thrown at you or had your engagement dissolve so, all in all, this has been a better year.” Travis gave Jack a carpenter’s level.

“Ben Warren, you get the **Good Listener Award**. After 3 years of being yelled at, chased, and told with a bad listener you were, you successfully made it into Medic One and are doing fine. You somehow learned to follow protocol and not get tossed from your program or suspended. We give you this hearing aid because you're really old and you might need it.”

“Temporary Chief of Operations Sulllivan,” Ripley stood up. “You get the **Band-Aid Award**. People joke about Vic and her medical emergencies, but you have had to be rescued by Seattle FD three times in the past 18 months. Your aid car crashed, you got trapped in the burning strip mall, and then you got carbon monoxide poisoning. When our insurance premiums go up, I know who to blame. But please, we're happy you keep surviving, and may your next couple of years be safer.” Ripley handed his bestie of a box of Band-Aids.

“Andy Herrera, you get the **Glitter Bomb Award** ,” Travis said. “This is a particular prize you get for the sheer amount of trouble you can cause. You've managed to the pregnant by the Captain, get him to resign from being Captain, get yelled at by Frankel, get yelled at by Frankel again, contribute to the ongoing HR paperwork of the entire station, and get yelled at by the Chief for entering a building full of carbon monoxide while pregnant. Also, there's an OSHA investigation involving you and your father. . . . Just to be clear this was a VERY close race on this. Vic barely came in second over Jack for breaking up and getting engaged within six months to a random firehouse visitor, and Kat and David for their small photo problem. However, no one could match your scale.” Andy graciously bowed to receive her container of red body glitter.

“Don't worry!” Bailey yelled out. “Meredith Grey wins this one every year.”

“Last, but not least, we do have a special award,” Jack stood up next to Travis. “Francis Smith, if you could come up here. Francis, we had a lot of doubts about her in the beginning. We called her Princess PR. We thought that she was possibly evil, but instead you ended up being a friend to all of us and the love of my life.”

Vic took over, “You traded out your dresses for Seattle FD polos and attended several hundred aid car rides and a firestorm. For this, in addition to promising to renew your CPR every year, you are now an **Honorary Member** and we give you your very own Station 19 pin and firefighter ax. Courtesy of the dollar store because you know how effective those are.” Francis accepted her prizes by hugging Vic/Travis and kissing Jack.

“While I’m up here,” Jack started handing out white envelopes with little numbers in their corners. “Everyone is invited to your wedding, sort of. Please note the piece of paper with our upcoming future mailing address. It’s a blank lot right now, but we should be living there by winter, I hope.”  
  


“This wedding is four months away. Aren’t you moving a little fast to send out invitations?” Andy noticed the date on the invitation Sullivan gave her.

“Nope, time to save the date now. You all are on the A-list. Except you and Maya,” Jack said.

Andy checked her invitation and saw that she hadn’t been invited. Sullivan had with a ‘plus one.’ Before she could speak, Sullivan cut her off, “I understand, of course. We’ll be there together.”

“I get it,” Maya said. “That’s why you invited Declan.” Her boyfriend had the envelope instead of her, too.

“Yeah,” Francis started to blush. “I know you two haven’t been together too long, but -”

“Her mom would burn down the church if she found out we’d invited two of my ex-girlfriends.” Jack finished for her.

“Maya can be my date if needed,” Travis volunteered.

“It won’t be necessary,” Declan said. Maya flushed redder than Francis but didn’t protest.

This year, it was Jack and Francis who lingered during clean up. Declan and Maya left first because she was 'tired.' Maggie and Dean left hand-in-hand. Sullivan refused to let Andy carry her own awards and packed her home for a 'good night's sleep.' Travis was checking his empty text messages on his way out. 

Francis was helping pack food in the kitchen and asked Vic the 1,000 dollar question, “Did Ripley give you a taser?”

“Yes,” Vic nodded. “I don’t think I need a taser, but . . .”

“They need us to have them,” Francis said. “ . . . _but I die without you_.” Her voice got quiet, echoing the song.

“ _But I know blue, only blue,_ ” Vic whispered back. The understanding passed between them, the burden of knowing their men were struggling with the same problems.

“Hey, ladies,” Jack came in, carrying more salads. “What are we talking about?” Ripley was right behind him.

“Nothing much,” Francis smiled. “Tasers.”

Jack set down his food on the counter and crossed his arms. Ripley mimicked him. “So?” Both women recognized that as a dare to argue with him.

“Oh, look at the time!” Vic exclaimed. “It’s getting late.”

“You two are welcome to stay,” Ripley offered graciously. “We have two guest rooms.”

“Honey, this is the Pregnancy House. Everyone who has sex here gets pregnant,” Vic warned them.

“Well, in that case . . .” Jack acted like he was going to pull Francis down the hallway.

“No! Thank you for the offer. Let’s talk in four months,” Francis grabbed Jack’s hand and took their leave. “See you tomorrow.”

‘Tomorrow’ meant that the following morning was Maya’s first sprint triathlon - she hadn't been quite sneaky enough to hide that from everyone. A, B, and D-shifts surprised her by attending, all wearing their kitten 5K T-shirts. C-shift was working the station, temporarily covered by a combo of D-shifts from two other stations. Frankel ultimately suspended C-shift 2 weeks without pay, then they would receive half pay for the third week, and they were forced to attend the Grey Sloan Memorial’s sexual harassment training.

It was a good day for Declan too because the team was absolutely titillated to see Maya accept her medal and throw herself into Declan's waiting arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Believe it or not, there is some actual plot and foreshadowing in this one - it wasn't just fluff. Any other awards I should have given out? (Notice that some of the awards were not appropriate because Travis was in charge and doesn't know what Jack and Ripley are going through emotionally.)  
> 


	8. Week 21 - The One with the Guest Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today - someone is in danger (what else is new), but who?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my version of Grey's episode 350. I can't say it's my best work but it sure was fun to write. Hope you enjoy.

**Late July**

**Week 21 Vic - banana**

**Andy Week 34**

* * *

The following week was a whirlwind of activity. Francis did her part and met with multiple nanny candidates. She brought Meredith Grey who was unrelenting in her cross-examination of the candidates' CPR skills and back to sleep beliefs. They were quizzed on the new early introduction of allergenic foods guidelines, their knowledge of infection control, and full support of mandatory vaccination.

Ripley, after a session with Dr. Wyatt about his protective feelings, authorized background checks, and set his secretaries to contact all their references. Wyatt didn’t take him to task of the taser. She recommended he get recertified in infant CPR as a more practical method of channeling his emotions.

In the end, they managed to find a weekday nanny, a weekend nanny, night nanny, and a backup nanny. It was certainly helpful that they were able to provide pretty generous benefits for a job that initially wouldn’t begin until ideally September. The Ripley’s would eventually pay ¾ of the salaries with the Sullivan-Herreras covering their ¼. Baby basecamp would move to the Ripley’s once the triplets arrived.

* * *

An actual whirlwind in the form of a storm blew in from the west, and Andy and Vic got called to a large scale car accident. They were further out of their regular coverage area than they expected, but it was a large enough car accident for the scene to already had five fire trucks and six aid cars.

Battalion Chief O’Brien was there. The LifeFlight air ambulance was landing on the median, and Medic One was on hand, teamed by Ben Warren, Shireen Varma, and Matthew Taylor.

“This does not look good,” Vic confirmed their location before getting out of the ambulance. “That's over 30 cars.”

She and Andy worked together to get the gurney out of the aid car against the wind and headed over to where there were already yellow, green, and red triage areas.

“Hey, ladies, welcome to the fun,” Ben Warren greeted them in the red zone. He was tying tourniquets off on someone who had numerous open extremity wounds.

“How many ambulances do we have?”Andy asked.

“You’re number seven and more are coming. We've got to spread these the casualties between the Seattle Pres, Grey Sloan, Pac-North, and Rainier Valley,” Taylor handed over some tape, blocking Ben from some of the wind.

“Okay,” Varma said, “We've got five critical reds, one chopper from Rainier Valley, and I expect one flight nurse. What do we do?” She listed off five different patients to the varying levels of severe injuries.

Ben snapped around to the people exiting the helicopter and had a sudden smile, “That’s more than a flight nurse.”

* * *

Battalion Chief O'Brien was overseeing the fire fighting teams extracting people from the cars. One of his firefighters from Station 28 started screaming and pointing.

A car tried to go around the accident at high speed. It slammed directly into the closest fire truck. The firefighters got out of the way barely in time.

Chief O'Brien turned his attention to the firetruck as LifeFlight lifted off into the blowing wind.

* * *

Maya was getting worried. The aid car had radioed in when they arrived on the scene. She hadn't heard anything since, which was over an hour ago.

She walked out to the barn and paced around the engine and ladder trucks. It was pretty windy, but not to the extent of the windstorm almost two years ago. There was no shelter in place order, and there wasn't a big issue with flying objects. They wouldn't have their aid car blow go off the road for a second time. Right?

Still, she wasn't comfortable. She called dispatch and asked if they'd heard from her team again. Dispatch said negative. Maya called Medic One, and they said no one had checked in either. She went upstairs, and Travis was making dinner. Kat and David were lounging around, leaning slightly to close to each other, continuing their road to relationship recovery. Dean and Gibson were teasing Blake about his vegetable chopping skills while Iris tried to hide her laughter.

Everyone straightened up when she arrived. “Hey, Montgomery, can you come downstairs with me for a minute?”

“Sure,” He motioned to Blake, letting him take charge of the latkes he’d been frying. “If you ruin this, I will make you eat it.”

By the time they reached her office, he knew something was up. “What's going on?”

“Has Vic texted you? Anything?”

“No.” He stared at the gray clouds and the trees bending in the wind. “I thought she’s on a call. With Andy.”

“I can't find them. I haven't heard anything since they reached the big car accident. They said there were lots of victims. Dispatch hasn't heard from them.”

“They might be really busy. Big scenes don't always call dispatch often, especially if it’s it's not on fire.”

“Yeah, I know,” Maya clicked her tongue. “But do you want to be the one to tell Chief Ripley that we don't know where aid car and Vic are? Or that dispatch can't find them?”

“Try the battalion chief instead.”

“Yeah, I tried that. He was a little busy with the person who crashed their car into the firetruck he was standing next to. His aide had no idea which aid cars had come and gone.”

There was a sound of the doors of the barn opening. They ran to the barn and watched the aid car pull in.  
  
  
Andy gingerly climbed out with a youngish African-American woman that Maya did not recognize. It was NOT Vic.

  
“Where's Vic?” Maya asked. “And who's this?”

“This is Dr. Stephanie Edwards. She’s a surgeon at Rainier Valley. She’s doing a trauma/EMS rotation with LifeFlight. What’s wrong?”

“Why do you have her and not Vic?” Maya asked.

“They sent me with Dr. Edwards to Grey Sloan because there was a critical patient. I left Vic working with Medic One. She's got like crazy skills now that she's in that paramedic program.”

“We haven't heard from you,” Maya didn’t want to sound panicked. It was un-Captainy.

“We checked in with Rainier Valley as we left. They were said they had trouble with their phones and communication equipment. I mean, it is a bad wind storm.” Andy said. “We didn’t go off a cliff this time, and our patient didn’t die.”

“Might have been my fault,” Edwards said. “You were driving, and I might have used the wrong call sign since I usually see Station 34 at Rainer Valley.” She fluffed her curly hair. “I’ll compare notes with your captain. Go eat something, pregnant lady. Doctor’s orders.”

Andy gave Maya a worried look. “I'm going to grab something to eat, and I'll be right back.”

“So, you last saw Vic with Medic One?” Travis asked.

“I assume so. Cute African American girl pregnant with giant fuzzy hair?” Edwards rubbed her locks. “Like huge, bigger than mine.

“I hope you mean her hair because she’s not that pregnant yet. Sounds right.” Travis said.

“It's funny because she was like the only person who was there that I didn't know,” Edwards decided to explain herself. “You see, I used to work at Grey Sloan. I left after a fire and took some time off before returning to residency at Rainier Valley. I saw Dr. Ben Warren there for some reason and a paramedic I knew, Matthew Taylor.”

“Why does his name sound familiar?” Travis tried to place it.

“So this sounds really messy, but I used to date this one stupid doctor, Jackson Avery. He broke up with me by interrupting April Kepner’s wedding to Matthew. Avery ended up marrying April, but he divorced her even though she was pregnant with his baby.” 

“Oh, that was the fire that inspired Ben to join the fire department,” Travis snapped his fingers. “I remember now. If it makes you feel better, April did marry Matthew Taylor later. Also Jackson's dead.”

“Dead? Like not breathing ‘dead’ dead. No pulse, can’t return dead?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. After April, he dated Dr. Maggie Pierce. They broke up, and she’s dating one of our firefighters. Avery mistakenly melted his own face off, I think.”

Edwards snorted, “I'm not really sure where to go with that. Not to speak ill of the dead, but he was an asshole.”

“I got that feeling,” Travis said. "If you want, you can talk about it with Pierce’s new boyfriend, Dean, upstairs.”

“Guys. We still don't know where Vic is!” Maya broke into their conversation.

“She’s with Medic One,” Travis said.

“Is she? I talked to Medic One already, and _they won’t know where Medic One is_. Who told you to go with Andy?”

“Gramps. I mean, Ben Warren. We were splitting patients, and he felt it was better for me to go with Andy in case I needed to cut them open during the ride. I didn’t realize he wasn’t a supervising physician on Medic One.”

“No, he’s a Medic One trainee now,” Maya said.

Dr. Edward’s pager went off. Maya and Travis saw her expression change when she checked it. “What is it?”

“It says I need to check in right now. 911.”

“Use the phone in my office,” they escorted her over there.

Edwards dialed in and waited. She requested to speak to the emergency room. ‘Whoa. Whoa. Slow down. Slow down. This is Dr. Stephanie Edwards, fifth-year surgical resident. Yes, I'm currently at Station 19, outside of Grey Sloan. . . . Wait . . . what? Oh, no.” She hung up the phone. Her eyes were huge.

“What was that?” Maya said.

“LifeFlight is missing. It was supposed to be on its way to Pac-North. It didn't arrive.”

“Wait, but you were supposed to be on LifeFlight,” Travis stated.

“I know.”

The silence lasted and lasted. Maya sighed, “LifeFlight is neither SFD or Medic One. The hospitals contracted it out. What's the capacity of LifeFlight?”

“Usually two medical providers, the pilot, and the patient. It was me and my flight nurse.”

“If you’re here, then that means somebody else was on LifeFlight,” Travis breathed. “Did it go down?”

*****New Section Starts here****

“I’ve got to call the Chief,” Maya said.

Maya bullied her way through dispatch to Chief Ripley.

“This is Ripley,” he said.

“This is Captain Bishop of 19. I have to report that we have a possible missing air ambulance. I've just spoken with the flight doctor who was assigned to the area ambulance and came with Herrera to 19. Rainer Valley thinks it may have gone down.”

“What do you mean they think ‘it may have gone down.’” His voice was carefully controlled.

“It never arrived at Pac North. It’s been greater than an hour,” Maya bit her lip and then continued on. “I have to also report to you, sir, that I don't know where Victoria Ripley is. She was at the scene with Medic One. We haven't heard from her. No texts, no calls, nothing.”

“You're saying you have the flight doctor with you at Station 19. That it is possible that Victoria Ripley is on the helicopter, which we can't find.”

“I can't assume anything, sir. Our paramedics are not certified to go on an air ambulance. If she were on it, it would be a violation of protocol.”

“Yet you have a physician who left LifeFlight, which is also a violation of protocol.”

“Sir, I'm not in charge of this. I'm only reporting to you, sir. We need to start search and rescue and figure out-”

“I know what we need to do,” he cut her off. There was a long pause. “I know what we have to do.”

* * *

Chief O'Brien received a cell phone call from his chief. “Okay, okay, I hear you. Absolutely, I'm going to check right now.” They'd finally gotten most of the cars too damaged to drive off cleared away. Numerous tow trucks were moving a bunch of car debris.

The driver who smashed his car into the fire truck had not survived. The triage team had outdone itself fielding so many patients at the same time. He was fairly certain the team leaders were relaxing now in Medic One aid car.

He knocked on the back. A tall brown-haired white man opened the door.

“Hey, what's going on? Look, sir, we did our raid stash of hypoglycemia cookies. Don't tell on us.”

“Definitely don't tell on us,” Victoria Hughes was downing a sleeve of Lorna Doones. “I have diabetes, but these babies need cookies. “

“Want me to take a photo for the husband?” Matthew Taylor offered.

O’Brien spoke to the phone, “I have a very pregnant Victoria Hughes here. I'm sorry . . . Victoria Ripley. . . . I got it. That's crystal clear, sir. I copy.” The battalion chief’s lips were set on a hard line.

“What's going on?” Matthew Taylor asked.

“You had more members of the Medic One team, didn't you?”

“Yeah,” Matt said. “Shireen Varma and Ben Warren. They left on the helicopter. The patient had two chest tubes and a splenic bleed. He needed help fast.”

“Hope he made it,” Vic said, “We got all the other criticals placed. We handled it crazy good.” She and Matthew hit hands.

“I don't know how to tell you guys this, but the helicopter never arrived at Pac North. We believe it went down. We haven't located it yet.”

The two went still. “It's gone?” Vic said. “Like 'gone' gone?”

“We don't know. I need you to confirm who was on the helicopter. You’re sure it was your Medic One team?”

“Yes, Shireen Varma and Ben Warren. The flight nurse went with another ambulance to Seattle Pres.” Matthew said slowly. “They’re gone. . . .”

“Communications have been spotty with so many ambulances. But it doesn’t sound good. We’ll know soon once we retrace the flight path.”

* * *

Chief Miranda Bailey knew there was a problem when the Fire Chief arrived with Meredith Grey, Owen Hunt, and Francis Smith.

“Owen, get me Dr. Webber now. Please.” Meredith was leading her to her office couch.

“Tell me what's going on,” Bailey said, her eyes darting from one person to the other. The Fire Chief and Francis were always welcome for conferences, and there had been a large car accident from which they had been receiving patients all day long.

Meredith sat down next to her and held her hand, “Bailey -”

“It’s Ben, isn’t it?”

Leaning heavily on a nearby chair and looking older than she’d seen him before, Chief Ripley answered, “With the greatest regret, I must inform you that the helicopter carrying Medic One members, Dr. Benjamin Warren and Paramedic Shireen Varma has crashed. They went down en route to Pac North. The helicopter has been located, and we have confirmed four fatalities – the Medic One team, the patient, and the pilot. Dr. Warren did not survive.”

Meredith squeezed Bailey’s hand. She alone could understand what this truly meant.

“I need Tuck. I need you to bring me, Tuck,” Bailey said, haltingly. “I need you to temporarily assign Owen Hunt as acting chief.”

“Bailey -” Meredith started.

Miranda swiped a tear off her cheek. “Do it. Do it now. I -”

“I will do so. Let us know if there’s anything else we can do for you. Once again, my greatest sympathies.” The Fire Chief stood.

“Thank you, Chief Ripley. Please leave,” Bailey was shaking.

Ripley and Francis exited as Richard Webber with Alex Karev hot on his heels entered. There was a brief glimpse of all three embracing Bailey before the door swung closed.

Ripley nodded to Owen Hunt, leading him and Francis to the conference room for the first news brief of the day.

* * *

Chief Ripley, the battalion chief, Matthew Taylor, Andy, Stephanie Edwards, and Vic were interviewed by the NTSB and NIOSHA within 24 hours. It was determined, but not shared with Chief Bailey, that Ben had decided the best course of action was to violate protocol by having Medic One enter the helicopter in order to save the patient. Weather was cited as the cause of the helicopter crash. The official report would take months to complete.

Shireen Varma was buried first with full color guard and honors from the Seattle Fire department. Her husband attended with their three small children. She was the first female firefighter to perish in Seattle Washington.

Medic One insisted on carrying her coffin off the fire truck. Vic stood with Ripley, in the ‘pregnant, mourning’ dress Francis had added to her look-book.

As a city employee, the mayor her staff attended. Vic stood on Ripley's arm with the rest of the chiefs and police chief Reyes. 

At the end of the funeral, Ripley and Hastings approached Varma's husband. They offered their condolences for his loss and promised an even more thorough investigation what went wrong with the helicopter.

Ripley blocked the photographers from taking the husband's photo. "This isn't the time." He directed city photographer and news crews back to Francis Smith.

Hastings was particularly upset. "I'm back at full duty. I will not forget what has occurred." 

It was a quiet drive back to HQ in the black chief's car.

* * *

Ripley had offered a similar honor to Ben, Bailey had declined. She did allow Matthew Taylor, Dean, Jack, and Travis to be the pallbearers. She outright refused Ripley because ‘I ain't fixing that heart again at my husband's funeral.’

Doctors from far and wide came to attend the funeral. Meredith, Alex, Richard, Catherine, and Tuck stood by Bailey’s side. Maggie stayed with the firefighters of Station 19 who mixed with members of Medic One. Levi, interestingly, stayed with his fellow residents and did not join Travis. A tall Korean man arrived and had a close conversation with Levi beforehand. Stephanie Edwards hung out in the group with an Indian guy, a blonde tall woman, Jo Karev, and the current other residents.

Ben’s sister Rosalind, formerly Curtis, gave Bailey a brief hug before fading into the crowd.

Bailey gave the eulogy. She spoke about Ben’s great love of adventure, his ongoing desire for challenges, and his love for the hospital. He had died doing what he loved. He was a born risk-taker and would sacrifice anything for his patients.

His name was added to the honorary plaque of deceased surgeons.

_Benjamin Warren_

_Jackson Avery_

_Derek Shepherd_

_Heather Brooks_

_Mark Sloan_

_Lexie Grey_

_Charles Percy_

_Reed Adamson_

_George O'Malley_

_Ellis Grey_

For such a somber occasion, there was a huge number of reunions occurring when the funeral retired to the atrium of Grey Sloan. Jackson Avery's funeral had been well attended, but it really seemed that Miranda Bailey was the reason these people had come out of the woodwork. Maya got it because she had very little interaction with Ben most of the time. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but not necessarily deserving of this level of regard.

“Oh, my God,” Maya said, “I don't believe I have ever seen this many doctors in one place, ever. If someone has a heart attack, a car accident, bomb in a body cavity, another helicopter crash . . . okay maybe a bad example . . . My point is that we could bring back King Tut from the dead.”

For example, a dark-haired Korean woman seemed extremely chummy with Meredith and had brought a set of four with her. A younger African-American male that stood a solid distance away from her, an older African American male was comforting Bailey, and a younger Latina woman was having a quiet conversation with Andrew DeLuca too.

“Hey, Maya, allow me to introduce you to Dr. Christina Yang. Original twisted sister.” There was a light in Meredith’s eyes Maya had never seen before.

“Yang, you bitch!” Alex Karev ran up and tackled her.

“Okay, Evil Spawn. We do not hug. Do I look like I learned to hug?” Yang admonished him.

“Look, Yang, there's like four of my ex-girlfriends in the crowd. I need some cover to keep them from meeting Jo.”

“It's not my fault you’re McSlutty now. Which ones? Ava here?”

“No, Lucy Fields, Nurse Olivia, Leah Murphy, Addison, Callie, Izzy . . .how good to see you.” His voice trailed off.

“Hello, Yang, Karev, Mere,” the blonde woman said. “I'm not here to make trouble. Just here to pay my respects to Bailey.”

“Aren't we all, cuz you didn't even know Warren, did you?” Meredith searched her memories.

“Nope, I think he showed up as a guest star around the time I left. Was he worth all of this?” She waved her arm to encompass the huge party at Grey Sloan.

Yang answered, “He wasn't.” Meredith elbowed her. “What? I can’t tell the truth? He wasn’t that great, but Bailey is.”

“Good point. Is that Owen Hunt? Are you two still-” Izzy asked halfheartedly.

“Nope, divorced. I think he's married or something to one of Derek Shepherds sisters or something now,” Yang said without regret.

“He was married to Derek’s sister Amelia. Now he's married to Teddy, the cardiothoracic surgeon who does trauma now.” Meredith reminded her.

“That is weird. Altman is here too?” Izzy said. “I guess I should catch up with them.”

“Yeah, you’ll see him with his sister Meghan and Mer’s ex-boyfriend,” Alex said.

“Oh. Well, I will see you later.” Izzy said her farewell.

“No, we won’t,” Meredith said under her breath.

“I must have really missed something,” Maya said since all sorts of weird tension was in the air.

“You have no idea. Blondie, who are you again?” Yang asked.

“This is Captain Maya Bishop from the fire department.” Meredith re-introduced her.

“Wait. What? We know people from the fire department now? I mean other than the ones that April leaves at the altar?”

“Oh, April is married to that guy now. You see, she and Jackson get divorced, and then she married that guy, Matthew Taylor, when she almost died of hypothermia.” Meredith explained.

“That sounds dumb,” Yang said. She waved down a waiter and handed Meredith and Maya drinks.

“Seriously dumb,” Maya agreed. “I'm the Captain of Station 19. You know, three blocks away from Grey Sloan Memorial.”

“I had no idea there was a fire station three blocks away. I worked here for 10 years and didn't even notice. Bottoms up.” They drank.

“Yeah, sounds about right. Who knew?” Alex snagged a beer. “You seem to spend a lot of time with firefighters now.”

“Dating firefighters is in. Maggie’s dating one. Maya dated Carina DeLuca. One of my residents is dating one. And they keep trying to die or move their wedding around.”

“Also an odd story, I’m guessing,” Yang wasn’t all that interested in the comings or goings of firefighters unless they were dating someone she knew personally, “So Kepner’s married to a firefighter now. He knocked her up, I see. How’s Avery with that?”

“Dead,” Alex answered.

“Oh. I’m behind. I need to catch up,” Yang grabbed a tray of tequila shots and passed them around, “Pick your poison with or without salt.”

“There's a lot of history here,” Maya said. “Most of it not involving the deceased person we’re supposed to be mourning.”

“I know. Addison Shepherd, is that you?” Meredith called out.

A redheaded woman came out of the crowd with her arm around Amelia Shepard. She was flanked by an African American man and woman and Atticus Lincoln carrying Amelia’s baby girl.

“You know what? As much as I could mock this ex-wife of McDreamy meeting, I never had much to do with her. I see Callie and Arizona and a creepy redhead,” Yang said.

“Oh, that's Penny. She killed Derek, don't worry. It's forgiven.” Amelia called after her. “I think they have a threesome thing going on in New York. I don't understand either.”

Yang took off, and Alex suddenly remembered he needed to see Jo. Maya stood awkwardly wondering what the appropriate thing to say was when your new friend is meeting with her dead husband's ex-wife and her friend’s ex-sister in law's friends.

Handshakes and more introductions were made around, “Where's the rest of the practice?” Amelia asked, “Not that I’m not excited to see you guys.”

“Yeah, Violet’s dead. She just like dropped dead suddenly. Sheldon's taking care of her child. Cooper and Charlotte are parents of eight. Or is it nine with his first child who’s in college now?” Addison said

“That is very prolific,” Meredith observed.

“It happens. We adopted.” A tan man arrived, “Have you met my husband, Dr. Jake Reilly?”

“Good good.” Meredith had the weirdest smile now.

“That's great. No one after Derek?”

“We did have three kids . . .Actually I am dating the chief surgical resident. His sister is an amazing OB.” 

That wasn’t the last person who made weird small talk with Meredith after seeing Bailey in the receiving line.

The numbers of people cycled through, dizzying Maya with the variety. There were pediatric surgeons, including one that newly returned Karev referred to as ‘Dr. Butthole,’ a single ophthalmologist, a lone pediatrician that was older than Meredith. One perky dark brunette went from person to person, particularly Izzy Stephens. Tom Koracick was leading around woman who might have been blind. One autistic woman kept trying to hide from the crowd and avoid the mosh pit of names too – Morgan Petersen (shook Alex’s hand), Erica Hahn (hid from the lesbians), Eliza Minnick (hid from the lesbians), Sadie Harris (Meredith shrugged), Jo Swender (hugged Izzy), Jason Myers (Alex glared at him), Robert Stark (hugged April). Someone named Dr. Wyatt seemed to be on good terms with the Ripleys too.

Bailey left early with Tuck to stay at Richard’s and Catherine’s.

Yang did give her a big hug. (“I have a hug limit and you got it. I am so sorry for your loss, Bailey.”)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be honest. I know it ended suddenly mostly because no one cared about who died. This was really my love letter to all the departed characters of Greys and a love letter to all the fans. Feel free to take a guess on how many characters I described but didn't name. And of the weird guest stars in parenthesis, do you remember who any of those people were?
> 
> Sometimes when I'm writing and I need some snark I ask, 'What would Cristina Yan say?'  
> 


	9. Week 22 - The One with the Label-maker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone but Vic and Andy attends a training at Grey Sloan. Why exclude them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was fun. It does serve a plot purpose, though. 
> 
> The websites Andy and Vic go to do sell pregnant formalwear. 
> 
> Don't miss the last paragraph!
> 
> I also want to give a shout out to all the new people writing Vicley. There are so many fun stories that I'm behind on commenting on them all!

**Early August**

**Vic Week 22 - coconut**

**Andy Week 35**

* * *

“Kind of weird that we weren't invited to this training,” Andy said. She and Vic were in The Beanery alone. “What training do you think it is if they scheduled to take 8 hours mid-shift?”

“I don't know. They're probably worried you're going to give birth during it. So dinner next week, right? Next Friday sounds good to you?” Vic washed a few dishes. Andy, she noted, had reorganized the cupboards and was now starting on the food. It appeared she might have been alphabetizing too. Nesting must have been an actual thing.

“Sounds great. Low carb everyone,” Andy used a label maker on the box of cereal.

“Yes. Steak and potatoes without potatoes. High protein wraps instead of bread. Vegetables, vegetables, vegetables again, and vegetable soup. Also low carb dessert.” Vic dried a few dishes while balancing them on her growing bump.

“That sounds fabulous,” Andy said sarcastically. “You know Bobby hid all of the cookies. He bought me these weird no-carb wafer things.”

“Did you withhold your cookies in exchange for real cookies?”

“No,” Andy admitted, “Some things taste even better than cookies.”

Vic gave her the side-eye, “You trying to tell me you never stole the cookies?”

“Are we talking about cookies or sex?”

“Actual cookies,” Vic said.

“Oh no, he stores the cookies in his room and then he counts them. I did steal a cookie once a while ago and I got punished for it,” She smiled. “ This time I am talking about sex.”

“I got it, Herrera. But don't you think that would encourage you to steal more cookies?”

“We reached a compromise. If I didn't’ steal any more cookies, I was allowed to eat two cookies at work and then he'd reward me for being a good girl. . .” Andy trailed off. “Yeah, it's better I don't talk about this.” She moved over to B shift’s cupboard, opened the door, and started rearranging things.

“Yeah, ‘Bobby’ probably wouldn't like it. I don't think he and Luke talk about details like that when they're beating the shit out of each other in my basement. I'm so glad they're friends again,” Vic debated whether or not she should stop Andy's rampage through other shifts' food.

Andy shrugged, “Bobby doesn’t talk much about Ripley to me. I’m not his favorite member of Station 19.” She pulled some old boxes of half-eaten cookies off B-shift's shelf.

“If I weren’t his favorite member of 19, we’d have a problem.” Vic patted Andy’s hand, moving the cookies swiftly away from her. “Look, I am hoping everyone who eats my low-carb peanut butter-cocoa fondue will bury the hatchet.”

“Is it better than cookies? I’m sure these are stale anyway,” She gave Vic a ziplock back to consolidate the cookies. “It would be easier if I felt like I did something wrong. We weren't together when I found out. When I was about to tell him, a strip mall burned down people almost died.”

“Yeah, you should probably not tell it that way to Luke.”

“It's not really his business,” Andy said. “It's my personal life, and I don’t need to apologize to him.” She angrily threw the ziplock bag onto a shelf and was then compelled to straighten it.

“Andy, it's not Chief Ripley's business, but Sully’s best friend Lucas absolutely has an opinion. Come on, between and Maya, do you ever hold back on each other’s business?”

“You're right. Not that I see her much. With me not living with her and her being Captain now, I see you.”

“Only half the time. All the rest of the time Blake is your friend.”

Andy shook the labelmaker at Vic, “If only Blake could learn to obey orders.”

“I know. I'm going to be stuck with him when you go on maternity leave. I do get it though about Maya. I feel like I’m not making a big enough effort for him. I want to be supportive of him and Levi, but I’m not sure if they are doing well. At the funeral, Levi's didn't go stand with Travis.”

“You can't read that much into that, they've only been dating for-”

“Longer than you and ‘Bobby.’ Pierce stood with Dean.”

“Levi is a resident,” Andy tossed a half-empty bag of chips in the trash. “When I met Meredith Grey, I went almost three years without talking to her. I liked her. Doctors are too busy sometimes for firefighter grunts like us.”

Vic wasn’t convinced, “You weren’t dating Meredith. Then again, you and I didn’t spend a lot of time together until now. But still, I feel so bad for Trav.”

“Hopefully, Levi can make it up to him.” Andy moved toward C-shifts shelves.

Vic slid between Andy and her target. “Why don’t don’t we online surf for super-pregnant formal wear for Ryan's wedding.”

“Very true. Bobby asked for no more pink. All our new baby clothes ended up being pink.” Andy started folding towels as Vic tried to move her toward the door to the lounge.

“’Bobby’ will get over it. I say we make you and I look like to giant pick glittery cupcakes.” Vic eased the towels out of Andy’s hands. “Can I just call him Sully?”

The two pregnant women chattered their way with almost identically sized bellies as they went to PinkBlush, Seraphine, and (in case they wanted a big investment) Tiffany Rose.

* * *

Alex Karev was getting suspicious. It was his third session of teaching the neonatal resuscitation program (NPR), and there were way too many firefighters remediating. The first session had like forty people, and one group from Station 19 failed even though they had completed their 8-hour class and had a tall foreboding Assistant to Operations, whatever that meant, from that poker game months ago. Alex swore they did fine on the practical part, but all of them failed their written test. In fact, most got scores below 10% which should have been a mathematical impossibility. By randomly selecting answers, they should have gotten about 25% right. One of the bigger guys, Miller answered ‘A’ on every question, and _he got the best score_.

They cheerfully reappeared the following morning when they were post-shift to retake the last class. He couldn’t remember at any point having a class that listened so closely and then requested to run multiple practices on the fake babies and then screwed them all up. In a typical class, he did about four hours of education and then two-three hours of practicing resuscitation with plastic babies and practice procedures, and took a test for an hour. Somehow their practicals were WORSE than the first day and they all failed the written portion again. Occasionally, a younger guy named Reynolds would be doing well and then suddenly completely lose it. It almost seemed as if Captain Bishop was glaring at him right before those events.

A typical scenario went like this -

**Karev** : 33-week preterm delivery. Baby is born and no active breathing or cry. Begin.

**Reynolds** : I stimulate the baby and prepare suction.

**Karev** : The baby cries weakly.

**Reynolds** : I bulb suction and get the deep suction ready.

**Bishop** : We don’t have deep suction. We’re in the field.

**Karev** : You have an ambulance. You have deep suction.

**Bishop** : Our ambulance went off a cliff in windstorm. We don’t have it anymore.

**Karev** : Really? That seems pretty unbelievable.

**Reynolds** : Okay, no deep suction. I use a straw to suction out the nose. (Gets a death stare). No, I mean I put in a trach.

**Karev** : You put in a trach? You had time to grab a neonatal trach kit before the ambulance went over a cliff, but forgot suction.”

**Reynolds** : (pause, checks his Captain.) Umm, yes, hand me a scalpel.

**Bishop** : Opps, you cut the jugular. Better hold pressure on that. You lost the pulse. Start chest compressions. Pass me the 3.0 laryngoscope. Miller get the line kit.

His assistant, Dr. Schmidt, was having similar trouble with the other two groups: Sullivan, Montgomery, and Stanley, and Gibson, Mayhorn, and Noonan. They always picked the same members.

Worse, a bunch of his equipment went missing. He had to replace more of the 2.5, 3.0, and 3.5 laryngoscopes. It shouldn’t have been possible because Schmidt always helped him pack up with Montgomery.

They showed up for a third class on the third day. How was it they couldn’t learn this but every other paramedic and firefighter he’d ever taught had not problem. The paramedic class had learned this without difficulty. Did the loss of someone who had been briefly a member of their station scramble their brains? Alex would have complained to Bailey, but Hunt was acting as Chief. 

One hour in, he decided to stop this shit. “All right, what the hell is going on here? I've seen your test scores. There is no way all of you are getting everything wrong. Sometimes you all pick ‘D.’ Or fill in all the bubbles.” Blank faces stared back at him. “Assistant Chief Sullivan-”

“I’m Assistant to Operations Chief, remember. I was deputy Operations Chief for a while. Not an actual chief,” the man answered. Alex couldn’t tell if he was amused. He certainly seemed less angry than he did with his girlfriend problems at poker.

“Mr. Assistant Sullivan,” Karev said. “I am sure your department has better things to do than this. Certification takes money.”

“Then it’s no problem. Deputy Chief Dr. Hunt agreed to throw this in pro bono.” Sullivan said calmly. “It's really important did everyone get certified.”

Alex had his doubts about that. _Surely the entire A-shift of Station 19 had better things to do than hang out at Grey Sloan_ _while on the job or_ _with their free time_. “Tell me what the problem is. I will do anything to make you all pass and let me get back to surgery.”

Sullivan's smiled, which was frighteningly creepy, “Well, there is one thing. Would you like to join me again for a poker game Thursday night?”

“What?”

“Yes, me and upper brass we really respect your work. We would love it if you could join us for poker. if you join us, I can guarantee that everyone will pass at the end of this session.”

"Otherwise, we'll probably need to do this course many times,” Montgomery volunteered. “We also have a couple of other things you wanted to discuss it.” Schmidt shrugged helplessly.

“Fine, I'll come to the poker game, I would do almost anything to get you guys to pass this class. What is it you want to do?”

Bishop addressed him this time, “We would like to do a scenario that involves the delivery of preterm triplets. But we want to include the obstetrical complications and the simultaneous delivery of the three babies.”

“That is a rather suspiciously specific scenario, but if it gets you out of here, fine.”

So they drilled extremely intensely for the next four hours. Everything that had gone wrong before disappeared and they attacked the scenarios with intensity Alex wished his interns displayed. Even better, everyone passed the written exam within 15 minutes.

That Thursday night, Alex went with  Assistant to Operations  Sullivan and  Fire  Chief Ripley to play poker with a large number of Battalion Chiefs.  The game was less fun than he anticipated because it seemed like they were ganging up on him. First, the Chiefs were betting pieces of equipment against each other, and Alex somehow found himself betting – and losing – three neonatal transport isolates to actual Operations Chief Hastings who was also the banker. Hastings handed him an equipment requisition form **ALREADY** signed by Hunt.

Ripley, in much better shape than he had been when he’d seen Alex with his wife dying in the hospital, clued him in. He took a copy of an ultrasound out of his pocket with the word ‘Thanks!’ on it – a copy of triplets.

Alex grimly completed the  requisition form and hoped he wouldn’t have to deal with any more stupid crossover s with these weird firefighters.  Cristina was right about firefighters.

* * *

Alan Hastings decided to go to HQ immediately to file the forms. He had no idea when Victoria Ripley would deliver, but they wanted everything ready. There was a report on his desk which hadn't been there before. It was a violation of the rules he set with his wife, but he couldn't help himself. He sat down and began to read.

Two minutes in, he stood up and locked his door. Alan made one phone call.

"Hey, Honey, poker's running very late tonight. I'll see you tomorrow."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was having a fun time writing this from Alex's POV. He barely knows these weird firefighters and isn't all that interested in knowing them, either. If you are keeping count, he went to the bachelor party and the wedding. He helped save Vic, but didn't have much to do with them otherwise. He played poker once with Sullivan and Ben. Why would he have talked to firefighters at the funeral since every single person from Grey's attended?
> 
> I'm also not knocking Alex's poker skills. He got ambushed.  
> Bigger question is - what do you think Hastings is doing? Next update promises so many fireworks. Feel free to predict.


	10. Week 23 - The One with the Mic Drop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alan Hastings has something he needs you to know . . .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter doesn't count as a preview anymore, but there is so MUCH to cover.

**August**

**Vic Week 23 - grapefruit**

**Andy Week 36**

* * *

Monday morning during A-shift, Alan Hastings had called Police Chief Reyes and Francis to Chief Ripley's office. Sullivan trailed behind him carrying a large pile of files that Hastings had produced from the depths of a file cabinet this very morning.

“My apologies for making this feel like a play, but this is the minimum group of people I needed to discuss my findings with. I've been working extensively with computer forensics. I've done a lot of studying and have some announcements about the recent department leaks and the campaign against Chief Ripley. First of all, I believe Hannah Fitzpatrick is the main perpetrator of these occurrences. She's had help, though from numerous sources.” Everyone nodded in agreement, though Chief Reyes was likely less familiar with the former head of PR.

“Based on the accounting reports provided by Ms. Smith, it appears that Fitzpatrick purchased photos of the former Victoria Ripley on dates with David Mayhorn for $20,000. Then she paid another $80,000 for a single cell phone video of a sexual encounter between Chief Ripley and Mrs. Ripley in the parking lot of the Astro dinner.”

“That isn’t new information,” Francis said.

“Yes, but I had the Youtube videos analyzed and got a report recently which confirmed the source of the video from the parking lot. It was the security feed from the Astro dinner.” Alan turned to Chief Reyes who went pale.

“Security feed?” She asked.

“The security feed was procured by the Seattle Police Department shortly after the purchase of the cell phone video. It was done by the police department at the request of Mayor Duncan, signed by her assistant Mara Hightower.”

“The Mayor?” Ripley exclaimed. “Mayor Duncan had a hand in this?”

“I don’t know. Blue folder,” Alan reached out a hand to Sullivan who passed him the requested item, “Here is the request on the official letterhead of the Mayor’s office. It is signed by Mara Hightower. Video from Police HQ shows her picking up the burned DVD. Reviewing the visitor log and Fitzpatrick’s department calendar, she did come to see Fitzpatrick shortly afterward.”

“My department helped?” Reyes asked in shock.

“Honestly, this appears to be the only involvement thus far though I am sure you will be exploring it further. Orange folder,” Hastings got another folder from Sullivan. “The photographs used to make assumptions about the affair between Firefighter Mayhorn and Paramedic-in-Training Ripley came from the city photographer.”

He passed around photos Vic with Mayhorn embracing her. Then photos of the argument in the Grey Sloan conference room before the press conference Ripley forbid Vic to attend. Finally, he showed them a spread of photos from the fireworks. “These from the home explosion were seeded from the city photographer, and then the news networks supplied their own additions.”

Ripley paced, rubbing his beard, “You and computer forensics figured all this out?”

“Among other things,” Alan said.

“Perhaps I should give them a raise. Provided I discuss it with the Mayor first,” Ripley said grimly. “Is there more?”

“I have some suspicions and assumptions that require materials to which I currently do not have access,” Hastings turned to Chief Reyes who had a startling resemblance to a statue.

“You want to get access to the mayor’s office computer system,” She stated.

“Yes, it is safe to assume that Hightower or Fitzpatrick located David Mayhorn’s residential address via his personnel file as a city employee and leaked it to the reporters. The question is whether or not the Mayor was involved,” Alan stated.

Ripley glanced at Reyes, Francis, and then his best friend, Sullivan, “We’ll have to handle this delicately. Keep it in-house, quietly secure the mayor’s office, and then see what warrants we need. After that -”

“Stop,” Hastings interrupted him, which was rather unusual, “Robert, I need the red folder.”

Sullivan startled slightly. There was something about the way Hastings said his name. . .

“Please do not continue, sir. There’s more. I’m sorry, Robert.” Alan opened the red folder and held up a screenshot of a social media account. “The photos of Victoria Ripley and David Mayhorn at events with other firefighters came from one source only – Lieutenant Andrea Herrera.”

**NEW SECTION**

All eyes turned toward Sullivan. This is clearly the first time he had heard of it. His face went pale. “I had no idea.” He said, full of shame.

“You may have wondered why you and I haven’t been together much. Now you know. I was watching you to see if you had any hand in it.” Hastings pulled out more pictures, “These were from an unprotected public Facebook album. ‘Kat’s Adventures in Firefighting.’ The photos in question have been cherry-picked and cropped. Like this one.” He showed Mayhorn grinding on Vic. “This is the original.” In the actual original, Kat was standing next to Mayhorn, confused, while Maya and Meredith danced nearby. “Here are the photos that followed it.” He flashed Mayhorn appearing terrified and Vic disgusted. Then Mayhorn picked up Kat and proceeded to basically have sex with Kat or as close as he could in public.

Hastings handed the file to Ripley, who said, “It was all a lie. And Vic was telling me the truth all along?”

“This is all of it. Your wife was never alone with Mayhorn. Herrera, Captain Bishop, or Kathleen Noonan from A-shift were present at every single encounter. They were merely cropped out.”

Ripley leafed through the pile, “I wanted to believe her, but it hurt. Each of these photos hurt. . . . And each of these photos was a lie.”

Francis peered over his shoulder at the spread, “But it was a lie aimed precisely to do the most damage possible.”

Hastings watched his chief study the photos, “I was able to verify all of the dates. The first set of photos is from a rookie dinner in January. There is a photo of Ms. Noonan getting Mr. Mayhorn’s phone number. Then there was a bachelorrette party attended by the women of A-shift and some members of Seattle Grace . . . Grey-Sloan, excuse me. There appears to be some from a Welcome Rookies Party and Kathleen’s Graduation. In the background, you can even see a bartender pouring Mrs. Ripley an O’douls non-alcoholic beer into a regular glass.”

Ripley massaged his temples, his voice nearly unrecognizable, “Mr. Sullivan. I am not going to ask you about Herrera. Speak for yourself. Did you have any involvement in this?”

“I swear to God I didn’t know,” Sullivan said. “Luke - “

“ _ **I asked if you had any INVOLVEMENT**_!” Ripley shouted.

“No. I had no involvement,” Sullivan said, watching the strands of friendship begin to unravel.

“Were you aware of Herrera’s involvement?” Ripley’s tone could have frozen the Tropics.

“I had no idea. I don't even have a Facebook page,” Sullivan answered immediately.

“Fine. You are temporarily suspended pending investigation. You are dismissed.” Ripley turned away from his best friend. “What is our next step?”

Sullivan wasn't going to let himself be shut out. “Luke. . . Chief. I . . . I am as in the dark about this as you are. I will do anything.” He took off his watch and phone. “Take it all. Search my computer. Come to my place and check everything from my Netflix account to my tablet. Check everything. Her stuff too.”

“He cannot give permission for her things,” Chief Reyes said shortly. 

“No, he can't,” Ripley agreed, noticing someone important hadn’t been invited to this meeting, “Where is Frankel?”

Hastings smiled sadly. “I've already spoken with her, and she is on her way to Station 19.” He gave Sullivan a pitying glance, “I admit the most likely explanation for the leak is Lieutenant Herrera not have any security on her account. You can follow her schedule through her regular posts, and the paramedic training class schedule is easily accessible and available. It’s not rocket science for sure.” He indicated the door with a more serious timber, “However, we have to be sure that there was no deliberate communications. Computer services are standing outside to take you home, Robert.”

“I'm sorry, sir.” The enormity of the violation was sinking in for Sullivan. The pain it had caused Lucas. If anything slightly out of line was found, he would most likely be demoted or fired. Even now, there was a strong chance he would never be trusted again by Ripley, personally or professionally. “I'm sorry everyone.”

“Me too,” Ripley said shortly, building up his mask again to hide his bitterness and anger of the betrayal. “Leave. We can’t do further planning with you present.”

The door shut solidly behind Sullivan.

* * *

Andy was parking in the barn after an aid car run with Vic, when she saw Maya was waiting for her. "Lieutenant Herrera, please come with me to my office. Ripley, you too." Maya sounded overly formal.

"Something wrong?" Andy heaved her belly from behind the wheel. "Don't you want us to restock the aid car first?"

"No, Montgomery will do it," Maya's request was actually an order. "Lieutenant, please come with us now."

Now Andy looked past Maya's shoulder to see Battalion Chief Frankel in the Captain’s office.

Everyone walked down to the Captain's office, and Maya carefully closed the door. Andy felt something settling in the pit of her stomach that had nothing to do with the movement of the baby.

Frankel was sitting in Maya's desk with the computer on. Whatever had happened, her eyes were almost burning. She opened up a folder and set down copies of Twitter posts with the photos featuring Vic with David Mayhorn facing Andy.

"Lieutenant Herrera," Frankel asked steadily. "You are aware of a current cyber campaign against your fellow firefighter, Victoria Ripley?"

"Of course I am, but-"

"Don't talk, Lieutenant," Maya cut in. "Don't talk unless she asks you a question."

"So yes, you are aware?"Frankel asked.

Andy nodded. There was no laughing about this.

"The fire department has traced the location are the source of many of these photos."

"They did - where?"

Frankel turned the monitor around, "They traced them to your Facebook page. 'Kat’s Adventures in Firefighting.'"

The world went frigid. Beside her, Vic recoiled, stepping away from Andy and toward Frankel.

"What?" Andy asked. This couldn't be happening. It had to be a dream. A hallucination. Or a nightmare.

"Now, I need to know on your father's honor and yours as a firefighter of this department, did you share these photos or deliberately call attention to them at any point?"Frankel wasn’t pulling her punches.

"No."

"Did you receive inquiries about these photos?"

"No."

"Did you send these photos to news stations or on Twitter?"

"No."

"Did you receive financial compensation for them?"

"No!"

"How anyone could have located these photos? You claim to have no interaction with anyone who showed interest of these photos?"

"Absolutely not - you see-" Andy tried to say.

"What I see right now is, that if you are telling the truth, you didn't recognize photos you took being used against your own team members."

"You understand - I didn't even take some of those photos!" Andy protested.

"What do you mean?"

"All different members of the station took these photos. At least some of them. This is Vic's second bachelorette party, I think Kat had my phone. In this one, Dean and Jack were passing it back and forth. I don't go on Facebook that much - the phone is set to autoload photos folders I designate. I didn't even look at them all the time. I just click the date's photos and upload them. I don't tag them either."

"And you didn't even check the privacy settings? I pulled all this up without even being your friend on Facebook." Frankel’s voice was loud and clear.

Andy was quiet, "I didn't know. Is it only me? Lots of us took photos at the rookie welcome events and Kat's end of her rookie year. I’d sometimes manage four phones at the same time."

"No one else, only you. Forensics already checked everyone's account of Stations 19, 23, and 42."

Vic had remained silent to this entire conversation. Her eyes were huge and blinking hard as she absorbed this terrible information.

“Vic, I had no idea. . . . I didn't know.”

Her pregnant partner didn’t come closer, “You ‘didn’t know?’ I can’t. I can’t right now. After everything I did for you . . .”

Frankel stood up, “You, Ripley, are here because I have orders to inform only the three of you. The investigation is ongoing, but we couldn’t allow Lieutenant Herrera to invade any more of your privacy. Or the Chief’s.”

"Is there anything I can do? Please?" Andy said as Frankel approached her.

"In light of the situation, I would recommend you allow SFD forensic information services to examine your portable devices and your home computer."

“Let me tell Bobby- Sullivan. You can have my computer, you can have my phone, my tablet. Heck, you can have my watch. Please let me call him first.” Andy begged. He was going to be furious.  
  


“Denied. Chief Hastings and Chief Ripley are having a similar conversation with Mr. Sullivan. You are both currently suspended pending investigation. I anticipate Mr. Sullivan waiting at your home with information services.”

“I – Bobby – he - “

“No. You are already the source of leak. Allow us to handle this internally, unless you want us to file for a warrant. I will take you home.”

Andy gave Frankel her smartwatch, eyes downcast, “Am I getting a formal reprimand or demotion?”

Frankel and Bishop exchanged the glances. "Andy," Maya said gently. "The worst you're guilty of, if what you're saying is true, is having poor judgment personal life. And not thinking about your Facebook privacy sections and whether or not your photos may violate the cybersecurity policy of Seattle Fire department."

"What your captain is trying to say," Franklin interrupted, "Is if you are innocent, she doubts there is going to be any actual punishment.”

"Other than to my reputation." Andy couldn’t help the words.

Frankel addressed Andy coldly, "Your choices determine your reputation."

Now Andy was feeling faint. At the end of this, no matter what, her reputation would be damaged beyond repair. Sullivan had been shielding her from the consequences of dating Jack, hiding her pregnancy, and Frankel. Now people would believe she was not even smart enough to control her own Facebook settings. The punishment was already here.

"Chief, wait," Vic spoke up. "Andy didn't do this, at least not maliciously."

"Explain, Ripley," Frankel turned back, somewhat shocked Vic was willing to stand up for Andy.

"Maybe she screwed up her privacy settings or her computer got hacked . . . but she is my partner and she had plenty of time and opportunity to deliberately harm my reputation. She knew I was pregnant weeks before the first photo got tweeted. She kept my secret for 6 weeks, not telling Sullivan or anyone."

Frankel gave her a measured look, which Vic returned stoically. "I will take that under advisement, Ripley." She left with Andy.

“That was generous,” Maya sighed. “You didn’t have to.”

“What will happen now?” Vic said. “Do I even want to hear it?”

“Can I be Maya and not the captain for a second?” Bishop asked.

Vic snorted. “Sure. I live with the Chief. There lots of times when he needs to not be the Chief.”

Maya exploded, “Dammit Andy! What the hell? All the work of controlling your image and she undoes it all. She’s getting punished. Between Frankel and Ripley, it will be 5-10 more years until anyone considers her for Captaincy. She can't transfer to another battalion because, if Sullivan doesn’t lose his job, he was on track to be battalion chief in a few years. That’s two battalions she can’t go to for a fresh start.”

“Yeah, I wonder what that’s like,” Vic hissed.

“I’m sorry,” Maya said. “I wasn’t thinking.” Of course, Vic knew better. She could personally never be promoted, she’d spent a month being gossiped about as a whore, and she was changing jobs to deal with her relationship.

“I got it. She’s your best friend and your officer. I’m just the one on her way out who was on the receiving end of all the shit. Thanks, Captain. Can me and my adultery babies please go back to aid car now?”

“Yes. I’m sorry.” Maya said, realizing how awful she’d sounded.

“At least someone is,” Vic left without a backward glance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been over six months, but the secret I've been building since PR Nightmare is OUT. There is so much to come in this new development it might take me a few weeks to even finish it. 
> 
> What did you think? Were you surprised? What do you think will happen next? How is this going to change things at HQ and 19? 


	11. Week 23.5 - The One with Festivus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fallout continues - It's still the same day! This is half the chapter but I know everyone has been patiently waiting. 
> 
> (We are going to celebrate Festivus in Full Force - even if it's August. It was a coincidence when I was coming up with a fun title)
> 
> And now - Feats of Strength!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to be very honest, I feel the show never makes Andy answer for her BS so these next sections are going to be painful for Andy fans. Part of all character growth is learning from mistakes and taking responsibility for them. They've never made her do this on the show.

**August - Still Monday**

**Vic Week 23 - grapefruit**

**Andy Week 36**

It was everything that Andy had feared. Frankel escorted her to her shared apartment with Sullivan and immediately gave everything to the three computer forensic guys examining the various electronic devices in their house. Sullivan had already written down a long list of his passwords and handed them over – including the information to his bank account.

“Before they leave, computer services will provide you with two department-issued cell phones. You will be contacted if and when your suspensions are lifted. Remember, the innocent have nothing to fear.” Frankel cast them both a final black glare before leaving.

The pair stood in silence, Sullivan’s arms crossed over his chest, watching the men working on their computers.

Andy struggled to find words, “Bobby?”

“Sullivan. Assistant to the Assistant Chief Sullivan. Tell me they're not going to find anything,” His dark eyes met hers. “Tell me I didn't betray my best friend. Tell me I didn't betray my department. Tell me you didn't betray your friend and teammate. Tell me I didn't sacrifice my career for you!”

“I didn't do anything. I have no idea how they got a hold of the pictures. I guess I didn't put any privacy protection on them. I swear I didn't do any of this on purpose. I just didn't think,” Andy confessed.

“That's right. You didn't think. You realize that whether you participated or not, you might have destroyed your career and my career?”

“Yeah. I destroyed my own. I guess I should have taken all of you with me,” she couldn’t help the anger in her tone.

“Shut up. That is exactly what they think. Don't you get it? Frankel actually believes that. Your battalion chief believes you have no loyalty.” Sullivan was furious.

“Do you believe me? Or am I a small, horrible, vengeful person that would do this deliberately? Betray the person who had my back when my team hated me, when her own husband hated me, and when you hated me?”

“Not to interrupt,” one of the computer people said. “Lieutenant Herrera, if you could give us a list of all your passwords and accounts.” She took the offered note pad and started furiously scribbling.

“How many accounts do you want – Underarmor, Famous Footwear too?” Andy asked.

One of the other guys was loading the devices into a box, “Technically, that is up to you. You could give us zero, but then we’d have to break into those accounts with brute force or get a warrant to compel you to provide them. That will take a lot longer, which I’m not sure you want.”

“Fine, everything. Feel free to invade all of our privacy,” Andy said tartly. She compared her list to the list Robert hand provided. He even gave them access to his Amazon and Walmart accounts, which included their baby registry.

“It can only be a tenth of how Ripley and Vic felt,” Sullivan hissed. Andy started writing down every username and password she could remember.

“I said I made a mistake. One mistake. I’m sorry it went this far. I didn’t think-”

“No kidding, you didn’t think. You said that already.” He addressed their audience.

The three computer whizzes tried to pretend they hadn’t been gawking. “Umm, here’s your cell phones.” He gave them two ancient flip phones and wrote down which one received which.

“Can I transfer some of my contacts?” Andy asked.

“No. They’ll have to call you. Sorry. Judging by Assistant Sullivan’s devices, this might not last very long.” The men left, abandoning their opportunity to see the Herrera-Sullivan relationship burn down.

“Now what? If you could let me explain-” Andy tried.

“I can't deal with this tonight,” Robert walked into his bedroom and started filling a bag. “I'm going to call Miller and crash at his place for now.”

“Miller? You’re going to crash at Dean's? You two are even friends?”

He rolled his eyes, “Every single member of the damn station crashed there at least once. Besides, he’s on shift so he shouldn’t have a problem. It wasn’t my account that did all this.”

“That’s not fair. No one would have given a shit if I’d been a guy who posted some drunk pictures without security.”

“I can’t answer that. Probably not, but instead it was the Chief and his wife you helped fuck over. It’s your problem you pulled me into.” He kept packing.

“You said . . . you said that we were a team. . . that you wanted . . .”

“I know what I said,” he sounded infinitely tired. “I also said I had Rip’s back and I would murder the person responsible. Which puts me in a tight spot now.”

“But I'm your -”

He zipped up the bag with more force than necessary. “Andy, you broke the code. You participated in going after somebody's wife. You're not my wife. You’re my girlfriend, or my baby mamma, or my slam piece deciding on who you talk to.”

She flinched, “It was just a dumb mistake. I-”

“No one cares what you intended. They’re questioning your loyalty and mine. Who wants to work with me if they can't trust me? My own damn girlfriend can't keep it shut about my best friend and his wife,” Sullivan slung the bag over his shoulder.

“Are you questioning my loyalty too?”

“This is why I can’t be here right now. I’ll say or do something . . . I need to be away.” He wrote down a phone number on the fridge. “This is my temporary cell phone number. If you go into labor or something.”

“Bobby, I-”

“Andy, for the love of God. Give me some space.” Sullivan walked out without a backward glance.

* * *

The mayor's office was under a mile from SFD HQ. Reyes’s made a phone call to the City Attorney, Maxwell Rose, who met them at the door. A squad of plainclothes police officers quietly gathered at the Starbucks across from the mayor's office led by one of Chief Reyes's is most trusted captains. The information had been conveyed verbally face-to-face to the captain without a single radio message.

Security let them pass with minimal hassle especially since Chief Ripley wore his most affable friendly Chief mask. The secretary waiting by the executive suites which contained the mayor's office and her assistant's was slightly confused when the crowd arrived. “I don't see a meeting today.”

Ripley batted his beautiful blue eyes, “It's a surprise. Duncan won't mind. Mara Hightower in today?”

“Yes,” the secretary found herself overwhelmed by the even larger smile he gave her. She blushed. “She's in with the mayor right now.”

His eyes blazed, “That is great news.” The secretary buzzed the group in.

Hightower was with Mayor Jenna Duncan, files in hand. Unlike the secretary, Duncan was not fooled. “To what do I owe this visit?”

“I can step out,” Hightower volunteered, moving towards the door.

Reyes and Rose blocked the door. Ripley styled his face into a calm vestige. “I think you need to stay for this one.” She paled beneath her tan.

Hastings started conversationally, “We're here to discuss which parts of the mayor's office colluded with Hannah Fitzpatrick to misuse City funds and enable a public smear campaign against Victoria Ripley and Fire Chief Lucas Ripley.”

“Fitzpatrick?” Mayor Duncan said, “I thought she was let go six months ago.”

“You have anything you'd like to say Ms. Hightower?” Ripley offered, dropping his friendly demeanor.

She glanced at the faces of the room, finding no allies. Francis gazed at her with complete dispassion. “I don't know what you're talking about.”

“It's interesting,” said Hastings. “This is a copy of a request for the security footage for the Astro diner. Because that is your signature authorized by the mayor's office.”

Duncan's eyes widened, “The Astro diner? Why is that familiar?”

“It's my favorite diner and the site of my sex tape,” Ripley said.

“I don't understand any of this,” Duncan was speaking to her assistant.

“I'll summarize,” Ripley supplied. “Hannah Fitzpatrick used City funds to purchase blackmail material about Victoria Ripley and myself. She paid for photos and a video taken by a cell phone at Astro diner. She buried it in the wedding expenses. Then Miss Fitzpatrick, with or without your approval, acquired the security feed from the Astro diner through the Seattle PD for another camera angle of my encounter with my wife. We believe she took the DVD from the police department and gave it to Miss Fitzpatrick.”

“After Fitzpatrick was fired,” Hastings took up, “We believe Ms. Hightower and the possibly other staff at the mayor's office supplied or sent photos from the official City archive via the city photographer in a coordinated attack on the reputation of Victoria Ripley and Chief Ripley. We're here to get permission to search all the computers in the office.”

“Don't you need a warrant?” Hightower said. Duncan was visibly less pleased by her lack of cooperation.

Rose answered, “You don't need a warrant to search city property as long as we have permission of the city executive.”

Hightower’s voice climbed higher, “We have highly sensitive information - ongoing programs, people's personal lives, delicate negotiations between community groups.”

Duncan was conflicted, “Maxwell?” She spoke to the City attorney.

“If you refuse, I will give them permission to search. I advise you to comply, Duncan,” Rose said.

“If you refuse,” Francis added, “This will be much more public. We’ll be forced to have a press conference about how the mayor's office is not cooperating with an investigation over attacks on the fire department. How will the voters feel if the mayor was complicit in hiding ethical improprieties - implying a lack of morality on the part of the executive?”

Maxwell spoke up, “Jenna, if you refuse, you're committing political suicide.”

“How much do you need to search?”

“All the computers, desks, files. We’ll be using our own computer forensics,” Ripley stated, “The police will be present the entire time. Ms. Hightower, you will be coming with Chief Reyes down to the police station the questioning.”

“I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't do anything illegal,” Hightower said with a slight tremor in her words.

Hastings dropped his friendly act, “I believe there we will find you regularly perused the city’s photography archive and copied specific pictures onto your desktop and then a USB. I figured it out when I saw the city photographer at the funeral. He was present at every recent incident, and, sure enough, the photos matched. You had access and time. If you logged in from your home, we’ll be able to tell as well.”

“We are getting a search warrant for your home,” Reyes said. “It should be done by the time we're done questioning you.”

The three computer guys were having a busy day for sure. 

* * *

Word spread fast in Station 19. Andy leaving with Frankel was not missed by anyone, nor Vic becoming almost completely silent. Then Dean got the most abnormal phone call from Sullivan on an unfamiliar number, requesting to spend the night at his empty boathouse. There were few calls which slowly led to a very quiet dinner.

Maya sat at the head of a table, passing around the salmon, potato, kugel and Israeli salad.

Jack was the one who broke the impasse, “Are we going to talk about this or pretend nothing's happening?”

Maya swallowed some of her water, “Talk about what?”

“What did Andy do to Vic?” Jack said flatly.

His captain froze. Vic stared pointedly at the table.

“I see,” Jack said. “If I had to guess, if it was serious enough to have her leave mid-shift and Sullivan is staying at Dean’s, then they’re getting investigated together. Most likely computer-related since all the stuff against Vic was electronic. . .”

“I didn't say that,” Maya said.

“Andy has a public Facebook profile, doesn't she?” Jack pressed.

“I can't confirm or deny anything. Other than that you guys are massive gossips.” Maya glanced around.

“L’shaon harah gets you every time,” Travis said, referring to the Jewish concept of gossip.

“Can't we talk about it?” Dean said.

“Vic and I are not allowed to say anything,” Maya stated firmly.

“Rookies, leave,” Jack commanded. Blake and Iris immediately obeyed. “Let me guess. Andy uses one social media account. Her Facebook profile is public. I know because I have sometimes unfriended her. And I re-friended her and unfriended her - not my best moment.” He pulled out his phone and started clicking. “I've just unfriended her again. Yep, can still access everything. Let's take a look at some photos.”

“Jack, stop!” Maya slammed down her glass, splashing water on the table. Had Jack seriously figured this out when it had taken forensics a month?

“So that would be a 'yes.' Andy’s Facebook profile is the problem,” Jack said, “I get you have commands from the department because it’s in the department’s best interest. Those are Chief and Captain problems, but I'm just a lieutenant. My job is to protect the team. And part of my team includes Andy and Francis. We all know Hannah Fitzpatrick has a hand in this. She seems to be a vindictive bitch. I refuse to place my team or Francis at risk.”

“Fine,” Vic said, “Andy's album of Firefighting for Kat had photos taken out of it and used against us. Against me. Against David. Okay?”

Kat spoke up, “It was her photos? Of David and me too?”

“Yes,” Maya said, “And I don't know what's going to happen next. They're investigating, and they're going to give us instructions on what to do. Right now we do nothing and change nothing. She’s suspended.”

“Sullivan, too?” Travis said.

“I don’t have more details, so don’t ask. This is a big deal. I personally doubt Andy was hanging out on shift sending, cropping, and sharing shitty photos while she was in the aid car with Vic. I lived with her. Not exactly hacker material,” Maya said.

“Doesn't exactly take a hacker. Anybody could have downloaded the photos from a public computer at the library,” David said.

All faces turned toward him.

“I checked. My mom wasn't happy with the sexy photos and everything. I Facebook searched, and I wasn't tagged in any of the pictures from Andy. I didn’t post pictures of myself, so Facebook couldn’t recognize my face to autotag me.”

“It's because you're terrible with a camera,” Kat said. “Thank God for small favors.” Everyone sat quietly for a few seconds. Vic kept her face downcast but was near vibrating.

“Okay, David and Kat head downstairs please,” Travis asked. David dragged Kat down the stairs before she could protest. “Talk to us, Vic. One of our team has harmed another one of our members. Do you believe it was unintentional?”

“I'm so mad. I’m angry and pissed. All of this was her. Well, not her exactly, but she was the source. All that time I thought - that all the things that we've planned . . . everything I went through when she-” Vic wasn't sure how to go on, yet was glad the people who knew her the longest were the only ones here.

“You want to hate her,” Jack said. “Kind of like when she cheats on you after you propose marriage? Or when she basically tells you you're a good fuck, but she's no intention of going back to you?”

“Or when she acts like you're not smart enough to be a lieutenant because she's mad at your new captain?” Maya said.

“When she hides the existence of her pregnancy,” Dean said. The rest of the table did a double-take. “What? It didn’t happen to me, but someone needs to speak for the captain or ex-captain.”

“Or when she tells that captain you're pregnant, but you have appendicitis. Then she blames you for hiding her father stabbing your husband with Ativan. And that’s before her Facebook is used to make you look like a giant ho,” Vic remembered.

Travis began the crack-up, breaking the tension, “This makes me glad she's never been such a close friend to me. The point is though - this is who she is and has always been. Why should we be mad now?”

Vic slowly spoke, “Yes, we know how bad she is that lying and keeping stuff to herself. I don’t think she did this on purpose.”

“We’ve got to decide if we protect her. Even if it means protecting her from her own dumbass decisions,” Dean said. All heads turned towards Maya now.

“It can't be me, guys. I can't order you to do anything. We just said it - she screwed all of us over at least once. We can let her deal with this on our own.”

“No,” Dean said definitively, “We’re a team. If she falls, we fall. Yes, she did take pictures but we are all in those pictures. We were there. We knew the pictures were being taken. We’d seen her stuff on Facebook so we knew those albums existed. None of us thought either.”

“And shunning her isn't going to help Vic. If they wanted to shut down Andy’s Facebook account, the department would have done so already.” Travis pointed out.

“Fitzpatrick is still out there,” Jack said. “I’m man enough to say I'm scared. She's not going to be kindly disposed towards Francis. She's going to keep chasing Vic and the Chief for as long as she can. We have to do something.”

“Is this okay with you, Vic?” Travis asked softly

She nodded, willing herself to release her anger about Andy. It wasn't going to help anyone, “You’re right. The real problem is Fitzpatrick, not Andy, and you are all my family.”

Whatever the challenge was, they would deal with it as a team.

* * *

**New section as of 8/12!**

**Tuesday at last!**

By the time her shift ended and she met with Lucas for dinner the next evening, it was clear that Vic was handling the Revelation better than Ripley.

They were at the table having a salad with eggs and cheese for her and noodles for him. “So I want to make sure I understand this. Fitzpatrick bought pictures of me with David. Then she bought the video of us having sex, and then got the mayor's assistant to get to the security camera feed from the Astro.”

“Yes,” Lucas said.

“Then the mayor's assistant used different events from the city photographer and gave them to Fitzpatrick.” Vic wanted to make sure she understood the exact sequence of events.

“It appears she copied them. It's difficult to prove the legality, though technically, it does qualify as theft of city property and misuse of City funds.” Lucas munched on his lettuce.

“So she got arrested?”

“No, she only got fired,” Ripley said bitterly.

“Are there warrants? Anything? Is Fitzpatrick about to show up at our house?”

“We are dealing with that. I can't talk more about it because there’s a bigger operation going – investigating – corruption of the mayor’s office. We can’t tip our hand right now.” His voice stayed even.

“You mean this has to stay under wraps?”

“Yes, everything is still hush-hush,” He put his fork down.

“And about Andy?” Vic did not expect a positive reaction from Lucas. She didn’t get one.

Lucas wrinkled his nose, “I haven’t gotten the final report, but Hastings believes it will be determined that Fitzpatrick or Hightower cherry-picked photos to continue the attack. Apparently intelligence is not required for a lieutenant to make decisions about Facebook or even the application of basic common sense.”

Vic set her own fork down, too, “Lucas!”

“What?” he said.

“This is one of those times where you being Chief and you being my husband kind of collide. Can you pick one personality to be right now? Just one?”

“Fine, I'm your husband and the father of your children. You goddamn stupid friend and my best friend's girl fucked us over here. Why aren't you more upset?”

“I am upset, but it won’t change anything. It's not like you can transfer her out of my station; she's 9 months pregnant. At least she has us at 19, even if she's going to be an idiot sometimes. I can either learn to live with it or spend my whole time being pissed.”

“I envy that . . .That you can just move on. You forget it. We had a sex tape released,” he protested.

“First of all, I don't ‘just move on.’ She's not the one who released the sex tape. She never thought anybody would care about her Facebook pictures because she doesn't think like a political operator.”

“She does not think like one,” Ripley agreed, making it sound like an insult.

“And Sully?”

“What about him?” Lucas’s face tightened even further.

“You haven’t mentioned him.”

“He doesn't see clearly when it comes to her either. She duped him too.” 

“Lucas, you can't be mad at him for something he wasn’t involved in!” He was killing her with his angry Chief act.

“I want to be,” he said. “The source of all of this pain was right in front of us all along.”

“Fine, you’re right,” Vic decided not to argue. Lucas needed to work through this stuff on his own. “Hubby, I’m tired. I have three tiny people growing inside of me, so could you tone it down and be my happy hubby again?”

Lucas took a deep breath, “All the best ideas.” He rested his hand on her swelling abdomen. “Which one do you think I’m touching right now?”

“No clue. A, B, C, or D.”

“If there is a D, we’re finding a new OB.” The discussion of the triplets seemed to relax Lucas, and they opted to settle in for bed pretty early. They hadn’t even gotten close to the sexing it when there was an interruption.

* * *

The Ripleys’ doorbell rang around 9 pm. It was raining again. Ripley was surprised to see a visitor on his front steps.

“Do you need something?” Ripley scowled at Sullivan.

Sullivan stood up, soaked in a raincoat and sweatpants. He held out the boxing gloves Ripley had given him for Christmas.

“I don't need used gloves. I already have my own pair.”

“I figured you need to punch something, and that something should be me.”

Ripley went to close the door, “The fire chief does not punch his subordinates.”

Sully caught the door, “Let me in, Rip. I'm sure you already know I didn’t have a clue this was going on. I hurt you.”

Ripley glared at him, “You didn't hurt me. The person who got hurt in all of this was Vic.”

“I will stay out here all night if I need to.”

“Fine, suit yourself.” Ripley jerked the door out of Sully’s hand and slammed it behind him. Sullivan sat back down on the step.

Five minutes passed. Ten minutes passed. The door opened again. It was Ripley, barefoot and shirtless. He nodded one time, and Sullivan entered.

Kicking off his boots and wet jacket, so Sully followed him downstairs. Ripley handed him a mouth-guard and head protection. Sullivan got the message. They were about to live spar and, considering Luke’s mood, this was not going to be an easy experience.

It was not. Two things became apparent very quickly. One, Ripley seriously outclassed him. Sullivan had resumed boxing in the past 2 years, but Lucas had never quit. Two, Ripley was planning on beating him within an inch of his life.

Weeks ago, Sully had found Ripley unfocused attacking a punching bag. Now that he truly had a target, the difference was night and day. Every attack was cold, calculating, and devastating. Luke's face was stone and unyielding as he batted aside most of Sullivan's attacks and delivered body blows to his friend’s ribs and abs.

They weren't using a timer or rounds so the punishment would only end when one of them called ‘Uncle’. And didn't seem it was going to be Ripley.

“Talk to me,” Sullivan gasped after taking a left cross to his right rib. “You're pissed, and you should be.”

He tried to dodge, and Ripley unexpectedly snapped his jaw back with a jab.

“Say something. Yell at me. Get it out. I’m your best friend, and I should have had your back. And I was making love to the woman who put you through this.” Sully landed a lucky shot on Lucas’s chin. “Sorry, I-”

Luke hit him with left uppercut hit him across the face, and Sullivan got a great view of the ceiling. He went down hard, thankfully landing on the mats set up for exactly this purpose.

“Ugh,” groaned Sully. He could already feel his right eye swelling. He sat up and saw Ripley looking not particularly sorry.

Sullivan rolled to his feet, unable to see out of his right eye. “All right, back to it. Again.”

Ripley went back at it, moving faster and hitting him more easily. He avoided Sully’s face, but a couple of blows to the stomach knocked him down. It was considerably more difficult to block when Sully couldn't really see out of one eye.

Each bone aching, Sullivan struggled back to his feet. He’d heard about Ripley messing with Mayhorn months ago, but Robert wasn't going to get off nearly as lightly.

“Again.”

The blows came hard and fast; Sullivan found himself back on the ground, cowering behind his gloves.

He staggered halfway to his feet and tried to assume a stance. “Again,” his mouth felt odd, swelling too.

“Stay down already,” Ripley said finally.

“No,” Sully said with difficulty. “This whole situation is fucked up. You're right to be pissed.”

“Then go away. Next time I knock you down, stay down.”

“No,” Sullivan said. “I screwed everything up one time. I'm not going to lose my best friend.”

“Well, thank you, Sully,” Ripley growled punching Sully directly in the chest, who was barely able to deflect the blows to his ribs. “You treated me like shit over Claire. Something that wasn't my fault. I didn't hit her with a car. Damn it. I tried to save her life.” Sullivan got battered with a left hook to the chin, and Sullivan hit the mats again.

He half-flipped over. “You're right. I was wrong then. What can I do?”

“For starters, you can kick that lying bitch to the curve.”

“Rip - ” Sully tried to get to his knees.

“I don't care how much fun she is in bed. I don't care if you think that her pussy can please you. She sleeps with her lieutenant, she cheats on him for a police officer, she goes back to Gibson again, leaves him again for the police officer, gets dumped by the police officer, tries to break up his relationship, and then moves on to you.”

“It's not like that.” Sullivan got back up.

“Sure, it isn’t.” Another hard blow to his ribs. “So she didn't sneak around having sex with you while you were her superior officer, then got pregnant from you? Didn't hide behind her daddy and everything we were doing to protect his good name? Didn't freeze you out cuz you actually wanted to be the father of this baby? You're not trapped in a relationship with someone who devoid of common who she participates in a smear campaign of her teammates? Not only Vic, but Mayhorn and Noonan too? So selfish she can't see how she harms the department.”

Sullivan threw a right cross which caught Ripley by surprise in the ribs. “Are you any different? Vic slept with Mayhorn months before she slept with you. When you started fucking her, did you think this was going to be true love? At 6 weeks, were you ready to commit? Do you think she would have shouted from the rooftops that she was pregnant with your baby?”

“It's not the same.” There was cold fury in Ripley’s tone.

“It's not? Judging by those dates, Vic slept with you two months after she slept casually with Mayhorn. Andy wasn't with anyone for almost a year. You can’t have it both ways.” He feinted and hit Ripley’s unprotected right arm.

Luke shrugged it off and delivered three body blows with such force that Sullivan had the wind knocked out of him. “Don't fucking break the code and say shit about my wife. And I knew before six weeks I was hooked and wasn't going to leave. I doubt you can say the same.”

Sullivan wheezed, “I know you don't approve, but I won't leave her.”

“We'll see about that.” Ripley turned his back to Sully.

“Are you two done?” Vic asked from the top of the stairs. She had quietly come downstairs with two ice packs. She ignored her husband and presented the ice to Sullivan.

“Yeah, we're done here,” Ripley said.

She snorted, “Feeling better then? Go out all the homoerotic anger out by beating each other to a pulp?” Vic pulled the head gear off Sully, who hissed in pain.

“Only I got beat,” Sullivan said, managed to get one glove off, and used his hand to press an ice pack to his face. There was going to be a hell of a shiner there.

“Right. Did you guys had a good man talk?”

“So you heard?” Ripley said.

“Every word,” Vic helped him take off the other glove, “Sully, if you want to make up with Ripley, it's probably better to not mention me having sex with Mayhorn ever again.”

“I'm sorry,” he apologized.

“You were under duress at the time.” Sully tucked the gloves under his arm, and Vic gave him the other ice pack.

“I should go,” Sullivan said.

“Okay,” Vic said, “Don't forget, we're going to see you Friday night. You and Andy.”

“What!?” Both Ripley and Sullivan exclaimed.

“Yes, remember we're having dinner here – together - Friday night. All of us.”

It would have been difficult to come up with something so they wanted to do less. “You know maybe we should-” Sully started

“There's no such thing as a raincheck on this. You and Andy will be there. Both of you. I do suggest you vacate though before my husband beats your ass again. You can keep the ice packs.” Sully didn’t need more convincing to escape.

“What do you mean Friday night?” Ripley peeled the gloves off with his teeth.

“I mean the dinner is still on unless one of them dies between now and then,” Vic said amicably.

“Cancel it. I don't want her in my house.” He tested a few small bruises on his chest.

“Which house do you mean? This house or the firehouse?” Vic crossed her arms over her chest, above her belly.

Lucas growled something under his breath.

“Hubby, she's already in trouble enough with the department. We all know she’s blown her chance again to be captain anytime soon. She was already on thin ice with sleeping with two of her superiors before this Facebook thing.”

“Not selling her,” Ripley crossed his arms over his chest, echoing her posture.

“She can be stupid and selfish and thoughtless-”

“I fail to see how this is an excellent argument to let her back in my house. This useless subordinate - ” he thundered as his best Fire Chief.

“Who is my stupid friend!” Vic yelled back. They stood there, facing each other, neither flinching. Vic lifted her chin, “I love you, but I am not putting up with this. You need to forgive Sully; he’s completely innocent. He was willing to let you kill him if that’s what it took.”

“How can you just forgive and forget! That was YOU they were talking about. I came off this without a scratch, but it’s you they’re saying-”

She cut him off, “I know what they were saying! She didn't do that. Fitzpatrick did. Hightower did.”

“And just like that, you're over it though.” He waved his arms ineffectively to encompass the entire room.

“I can forgive; I didn't say I forget. I didn't learn from this anything about Andy that I didn't already know. She's my friend; she's my partner, cuz I thought these babies are supposed to grow up together.”

“I’m reconsidering our daycare plan.”

“Lucas Ripley,” she walked over and put her hand on his shoulder. “Stop that crazy talk. You are not going to leave Sully's baby without childcare. You are not going to go back on your own statements about the importance of the department fully supporting women who have children. It's the Ripley-Sullivan daycare.”

“What happened to Herrera?”

“The name was too long, and you seem a little bit pissed so I figured we could cut that one out. Come on, I'm not asking for you to forget. I won't forget anything she did. But I can forgive.”

“I’m not in a forgiving mood.”

“Then tolerate her. Do it for the department.”

“I feel like I've already done enough for the department.”

“Do it for Sully,” Vic suggested.

“I didn't fire her. That is for Sully.”

“So is this how we're going to play it? Fine. Do it for me. Do it for our three little most valuable triplets.” She kissed his cheek, and he couldn't help but leaning into her touch.

“Cheating,” he said. Her fingers started easing their way down his hips and his boxer briefs off with them.

Vic gave him her sultriest smile, “Come upstairs with me for a shower. I'll make it worth your while.”

“This isn't fair,” Her hands knowingly started rubbing him vigorously.

“Haha, I know. Come on, your pregnant wife is very horny right now. I hate to have to take care of it by myself,” She removed her hands from his hard-on and started taking off her top. “Friday night dinner?”

His pupils dilated to a near ebony, “Fine. Have the dinner.”

* * *

Sullly quietly unlocked the door to his apartment. He’d driven around, gotten illicit carbs at the Astro Diner, and arrived home after 12am. People had given him some pretty hard stares since his face must have been pretty disfigured.

Andy was asleep in his bed. He stood at the end of the bed for a long time, weighing his options. Finally, every bone aching, he quietly climbed into his side of the bed and fell asleep.

  



	12. Week 23.75 - The One with the Meal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, as promised - The MEAL!
> 
> It's a little late, but I was busy writing books and all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This meal is amazing. And, there is a link buried in the dialogue that will take you to PR Nightmare. :) You waited a long time for this.

**August - Friday**

**Vic Week 23 - grapefruit**

**Andy Week 36**

* * *

Friday morning Andy and Sullivan met with Chief Hastings and Frankel in the Station 19 conference room. It had been a quiet few days in the Herrera-Sullivan casa. They hadn't had sex, and they had had superficial conversations about the weather often.

It was also due to the fact that Sullivan was limited by his massively swollen face. Dr. DeLuca had sent him out of the room at their OB appointment and asked Andy some very pointed questions about if she felt safe at home. Andy had assured her that there'd been a boxing class gone bad.

Hastings handed back their electronic equipment and cell phones. “Computer forensics has not found any evidence on your equipment of participation in the plot against Chief Ripley and firefighter Ripley. Your internet and device traffic was not consistent with the trail, and we were able to account for almost every purchase you made through your credit cards or bank accounts for the past six months. You did not appear to have bought burner phones or had any association with the fake email and Twitter accounts used in the smear campaign. Nor did you purchase any software or equipment to scramble the IP addresses which were eventually traced back to the wifi at area Starbucks.”

Sullivan pocketed his phone. “So we can go back to work? We can all move on?”

“Don't look too relieved,” Frankel said. “This isn't over.”

Sullivan didn’t follow. “Or Andy – Lieutenant Herrera – can make her Facebook settings private, and that’s the end of things.”

“It's not, Bobby,” Hastings said.

“Fine, I can delete my whole Facebook account,” Andy volunteered.

“Not so fast,” Frankel said. “What we're about to discuss cannot leave this room under any circumstances.”

“I don't understand. You just said we're innocent,” Andy protested.

“I didn't say you were innocent, Herrera,” Frankel glowered.

Hastings raised a hand for calm. “We have deliberately kept this incident extremely quiet. Technically, Herrera took off an extra shift for her pregnancy and Sullivan joined her.”

“Tell me where this is going, Chief.” Sullivan had an edge to his voice.

“Confirm first anything we say won’t leave this room,” Frankel said pointedly to Andy.

“It won't leave the room,” Andy said.

“Good,” Frankel said. "You're not shutting down your Facebook account or changing anything about it. We even opened one for Assistant Sullivan here.”

“I didn't have Facebook before,” Sullivan said.

“Yeah, we didn't give you very many friends. Mostly Andy and your mom. You post a lot of ultrasound pictures and pictures of you and Ripley,” Hastings said. “You also will be accepting any friendships from members of Station 19 that request you.”

“You see,” Frankel said, “There are two David Mayhorn accounts. One account using his official Seattle FD photo was not created by Firefighter Mayhorn. Herrera was friends with both of them and didn’t notice since she has 3000 friends.”

“You have 3000 friends?” Sullivan asked.

“The point is that we do not want Fitzpatrick to know we're onto her,” Hastings said.

“You’re going to use our Facebook accounts as bait?” Sullivan wondered.

“Ideally yes. If we behave as if nothing changed, there is a strong possibility Fitzpatrick will not know we found the source of the photos. The real David Mayhorn rarely uses his Facebook account and has little personal information on it. Our suspicion is that the fake account was used to monitor Herrera’s Facebook page,” Hastings explained, “If we control the information provided to Fitzpatrick, we may be able to catch her.”

“It won’t work,” Andy said. “Everyone at my station has to know what happened. You had computer forensics at our place. Sullivan never took a day off without filing the proper paperwork, and he was missing for a week. People will talk. The Department will talk.”

Frankel raised an eyebrow. “Actually, they've been enough fireworks at 19 in the past couple of months, we can tell anyone anything we want and people will believe the worst. So we are very sorry about your recent pregnancy complications and appreciate Assistant Sullivan’s dedication to your health. PD and the Mayor’s office will show their hand at a time of our choosing.”

Andy didn’t like that. She cradled her abdomen and glared at her battalion chief.

“Moving on. Jack Gibson, Captain Bishop, and Dean Miller volunteered to make are Facebook profiles public. We're going to carefully plant photos of different events including your baby shower and see if we can find a pattern of how Fitzpatrick responds,” Hastings said.

“After we catch Fitzpatrick, there will be a massive change in the social media policy of the department from Facebook to downloading YouTube videos on C shift. Right now, this is our main lead to catch Fitzpatrick," Frankel assured them.

“So he wants our help and cooperation. You need us,” Andy said.

Frankel’s cold voice could have started a new ice age, “Don't be confused. I don't ‘need’ you to do anything. There's a solid chance if we throw you to the wolves in the press, Fitzpatrick would leave the Chief alone. It might be enough to tarnish the name of 19 and embarrass the Department, so I don't need you. I am willing to give you an opportunity to make up for being a short-sighted idiot. You get a chance to prove yourself more worthy than I've observed thus far.”

“Threats are unnecessary, Battalion Chief,” Sullivan said. “You know we'll do it. It should have never been any question. We would do anything for the Department and Chief Ripley.”

“And Vic,” Andy said quietly.

“With that in mind, return to previous duties and act as if none of this has happened. Do not discuss this conversation with anyone, including Captain Bishop or members of your team. The less each of you know about each other’s parts, the more effective it will be. You may discuss it among yourselves at your own home.”

“Can I speak to Chief Ripley about this? I assume he is aware,” Sullivan asked.

“Judging by the way he rearranged your face, I'm surprised you speaking to you,” Frankel commented.

“I don't know what you mean.” Sullivan gingerly touched his bruised face. “I fell several times.”

“Yes,” Hastings observed, “Perhaps you fell into quite the solid left hook.”

“He invited me to dinner, sir,” Sullivan replied archly.

Hastings replied, “Yes, you may speak to the Ripleys, provided you are alone and preferably not on FD property unless it is absolutely necessary.”

“How long do you expect this to continue? I am about to have a baby. Will this go on after the baby is born?” Andy asked.

“It may,” Hastings admitted.

“Are you going to use my baby as bait?” Andy was not happy.

Hastings lost his friendliness, “We are considering all of the possibilities.”

“I'm not doing this. Demote me. Fire me. I will not put my daughter in danger,” Andy stood up.

“Andy . . .” Sullivan said

“No, there's a crazy person who hates firefighters and they want to use us to catch her. _No. No. NO_.”

“Can you excuse us, Chiefs?” Sullivan said quietly.

“No problem. Good luck on this,” Frankel stepped out with Hastings.

Andy sat with her arms crossed. “No.”

Sullivan's hands hit the table. “Shut up! We can and we will do this. Do not start this 'holier than thou' crap with me right now, Lieutenant. Fitzpatrick had access to every ultrasound you shared on Facebook before this, and you know what she does not give a shit about us. She wants Ripley, not us. When Hastings says they are considering all possibilities, he means the Ripley triplets are also available as bait.”

“Oh,” she said.

“The risk is higher for them by far. And your team is sharing the risk. Fitzpatrick is going to have a field day when she sees how many open Facebook accounts she can access.”

“But our daughter-”

“They're asking us for a small amount of sacrifice. It's something we can easily give.”

“Is that an ultimatum?” she challenged him.

“Damn it, Andy. You need to stop making permanent decisions based on temporary emotions. This is a choice. I compromised.”

“And if I say no?”

“Are you asking me to choose between you and the baby versus Ripley, my job, my career, and the department? Do you really want to ask me that? Right here right now? You think that's being fair?” Sullivan stepped away from her.

“No part of this has ever been fair with you. Why would it suddenly be fair now?”

“I get that you're scared. You're embarrassed and humiliated. You’ve got to look past all of that. I want you to ask yourself ‘should I want to be with a person demands that of her partner?' In the light of her own mistakes, should she try to hold our daughter over my head?” He sat back down, further away from her.

“And you're not going to hold this discussion over my head?”

Sullivan propped his feet up on the table and crossed his arms, silent. He waited a couple of minutes for Andy to start rethinking her response.

About five minutes passed. “Fine. I'll do it. I don't want to, but I'll do it for you."

“It wasn't that difficult.”

“Yes. . . No. I'm just not used to having someone who knows me this well and will call me out.”

“Because I didn’t let you break up with me or chase me off.”

“Don't make me reconsider. Is this enough penance for you?” Andy asked.

“Usually to do penance you have to be sorry.”

“I am,” Andy protested.

“I don’t mean sorry to me. I mean sorry for Vic and the Chief. Have you said it to them?”

“Well, not yet. No. It's humiliating,” Andy hedged.

He gave her another doubtful glance.

“How could I have apologized? I didn’t have email or computer access. I was suspended so I couldn’t drop by his office.” They both knew she was making up excuses.

“You'll have plenty of time to apologize over dinner tonight.”

“Dinner?”

“Yes, we have dinner scheduled at the Ripleys I wasn’t blowing smoke at Haskell,” Sullivan said.

Andy turned white, “Do we have to go? He did beat you up this week.”

“Yes, we're going. Also getting beat on was cathartic.”

“That's not your thing. Mine, not yours,” Andy snorted, feeling like she was on safer ground.

“Cathartic for Ripley.” Sully tapped on the glass to signal Frankel and Hastings to re-enter. “We’re both in.”

“Good,” Hastings gave them each a small note pad. “Here’s all your new passwords and instructions. If you attempt to try to change any of them, forensics will know since they are watching and making adjustments.”

“It won't be an issue,” Sullivan said. “Anything, in particular, you need us to do now?”

“Yes, before you go over to the Ripley's, Francis Smith and Jack Gibson will be stopping by to take some photos. We want the appearance that they are eating at the meal with you,” Haskell instructed. “You are to take and post a photo of the Ripley table with seating for six. Upload the photo to Facebook and computer services will caption it. Do not take any pictures of the meal, please.”

“That's it?” Andy didn’t believe it would be that easy.

“It won't be for you if you think Ripley's gonna give you an easy time,” Frankel said, leaving the room with Hastings.

* * *

**NEW SECTION 9/22/20**

It was T-10 minutes to the arrival of Sullivan-Andy. Lucas had promised to be on his best behavior about the photo thing, especially since the two had agreed to help trap Fitzpatrick. Unfortunately, Lucas still had plenty of other reasons to dislike Andy.

Vic had been hard at work, following the gestational diabetic diet cookbook. She’d put on a cute little maternity apron and made a nice, well-done pot roast, salad, broth soup, and a sugar-free apple pie from the store.

Lucas wore a dark blue sweater and spent a solid five minutes admiring her from the hallway before covering the nape of her neck with kisses. His hands immediately caressed the bump which now was significantly larger and more visible. He had to keep brushing aside her huge, glorious pregnancy hair which seemed to be thicker and longer every day.

“The food’s almost done.” She ineffectively batted his hands away. “What are you doing?”

“What do you think I’m doing?” Lucas played with the bottom edge of her skirt. He crept his fingers up her thigh.

“You’re distracting me,” Vic protested, equally ineffectively as those curious fingers started their way into her panties. She moaned, leaning against him, and she could feel how turned on he was. “You and your stupid good-smelling sweaters.”

“Let’s cancel,” he whispered. “They can darken our doorstep some other day.”

“You said you would be nice,” she reminded him.

“I said I was going to let the photo thing go. It doesn’t make her good enough for Sully. They’ve been back together for about two months. She still has plenty of time to kick him to the curb again.” His demeanor was completely different now.

Even though it wasn’t exactly her business, Vic decided she needed to set somethings straight. She doubted Sully had ever spelled out the situation to Lucas. "It was both of their terrible decision making that led them here. As in both of them together. They were playing Russian roulette the whole time. They liked the danger of not using a condom."

“He didn't lie to her. She hid it for months."

"Hubby, it was probably only a couple of weeks. Not everybody takes a pregnancy test the second they miss a cycle. They certainly weren't trying."

"She was careless,” he responded.

"They both were fucking idiots, okay? Besides if anyone's to blame for their first break up it was you."

"Me?"

"Yeah. Frankel had Sullivan doing the research for the new maternity leave policy. Apparently Andy saw Sullivan’s emails about how pregnancy ends your career in firefighting.”

"The research was being done to alleviate those problems - to retain female firefighters."

"It didn’t make the most sense, but considering how shaky their relationship was at the time, it was a little understandable. Sully can be pretty difficult to predict. Very dark and twisty sometimes.”

"It is true," Lucas admitted.

"So, since Sully might be a tiny bit to blame, can you try a little harder on the being nice part?” She bit him on the ear.

"I'll do my best.” He gave her a kiss which involved him trying drape himself around her belly. One kiss led to another, and after a couple of minutes, she had gotten his sweater almost off his arms and her dress was getting pulled downward.

Things were on the verge of getting naughty when they were interrupted by the doorbell. Lucas released reluctantly and planted a kiss on each of the curves of her breasts. Vic squeaked and tried to adjust her hair and makeup in the reflection of the stainless steel toaster. She had to make a quick repair of her lipstick at least.

After washing his hands, Lucas went to the door. “Sully, Hererra, come on in.”

Andy led with her belly now, dressed in a flowery maternity dress of her own. According to Carina, Vic’s bump would be rivaling and surpassing Andy’s very soon. However, her height advantage of six inches kept it less noticeable even with triplets. 

“Luke,” Sully gave Lucas the manly half-arm grab greeting.

“Phones off and by the door,” Lucas said pointedly. Sully immediately took his and Andy’s phone and dropped them in the basket near the key hook.

Andy cleared her throat, “We need to take a photo of the table setting. For six.”

Vic waved them over to the table in the open plan dining room. The kitchen opened into the dining room and the living room. Andy carefully aimed her camera, “Okay, no reflections, no people. Just plates.”

“No people,” Ripley echoed. Sullivan and Vic exchanged a look. The good news was Chief Ripley hadn’t gone full Riptide and torn Andy to shreds. The bad news was this was going to be a long painful dinner.

Everyone sat down. Ripley sat on one end with Vic and Sully on either side. Andy sat next to Vic on the kitchen side, trying to stay as far away from him as possible. Vic offered everyone wine and only Lucas took her up. He drank two glasses before the first course. Two lonely, empty plates took up the other spots.

Vic tried to keep the topics on safe subjects because Ripley was alternating between the full glowering Chief face and perfectly pleasant husband. He curled his hand in her lap and kept fiddling with her skirt. She decided to start pinching his finger any time he seemed like he was going to start interrogating Andy.

Pretty quickly they exhausted topics including the weather and Vic’s cooking skills. On her last sentence about the pot roast, Lucas slid his hand past her skirt and up her thigh. “Lucas!” She recovered quickly. “I think it’s time for pie.”

“I’m okay,” Andy said. “I’m not allowed to have carbs.”

“Forbidden never stopped you before,” Ripley said, and Vic captured his hand with her knees, trapping it.

“Are you guys staying at this place after they're born?” Sullivan asked, hoping to direct the subject towards the Ripley babies and anywhere but Andy.

Ripley smiled, agreeing with a too-friendly tone that Vic did not trust for a second. He jerked his hand free of her knees. “We’ll be staying here for now. Bad news for you two. The guest room is closed. It will be the daycare.”

That had the intended effect on the other couple – Andy and Sullivan both turned bright red, glancing guiltily down the hall.

Vic jumped in, “So you guys - at your place - moving?”

“Probably in the next couple months,” Sullivan said. “A two-bedroom apartment isn't going to cut it for a family.” Andy grimaced which was not missed by Ripley.

His eyes flashed and then became completely blank. Vic knew it was going to start to get really bumpy.

“The Department can get you in touch with a good realtor. Your buying power increases if you’re married.”

“They don't need to be married,” Vic said. She could see where this was going to go next.

“Yes, but there's so much more protection if you're married,” he said patiently. “Of course, that means someone would have to propose.” His eyes went straight to Andy.

She stammered, “I'm not ready.”

Ripley gave her a doubtful glance. “So he did propose?”

Sullivan looked supremely uncomfortable but also powerless to stop which was about to happen.

Andy, never one to know when to stop talking, said, “I'm not ready.”

“I see,” Ripley was very much less friendly now. “The father of your baby proposed, and you told him 'no?'"

Andy was cornered. “I didn't exactly. I’m not ready. All this wasn’t planned. There was the bridal shower, and it happened - ” She trailed off and made a critical mistake. She looked at Sullivan and then her eyes focused on the TV behind Sullivan’s head.

Ripley glanced from his best friend and his girlfriend. He looked at the TV on the living room wall, rejudged the distance, and noted the TV’s reflection down onto the couch. The wheels were turning, and Sullivan put his head down as Luke put two and two together. Ripley turned to Vic for a second, whose eyes silently confirmed his suspicion, and his face hardened.

“Oh, I see. Is the problem that Vic and I don't invite you over often enough to watch?”

That went over like a lead balloon. Both Sullivan and Vic yelled, “Luke!”

“You thought I didn’t know what you two did here? That you watched me make love to my wife and used it as an excuse the screw yet another member of SFD?”

“Luke stop!”

“Rip, that's enough.”

The chief was on his feet and on a roll. “I'm not done. You **are** a glitter bomb. You get your crap all over everyone else who happens to be around out.  You sleep with your lieutenant. You sleep with your captain. You fucking hide his baby from him for months. Then you're mad at him because he actually tells the truth to the Department. So you freeze him out for months. That doesn’t even start on the engagement you tried to break up with your little voicemail to Ryan and whoever’s wedding we’re going to in a show of support for poor little Andy Herrera.

“And you don’t believe any of this is your fault. You do what you feel like and to hell with the consequences for anyone else. Too bad you tanked Gibson’s career when he slept with you; it was his fault, not yours. Sully should have worn a damn condom, even if you didn’t ask him to. His fault, not yours. You read his emails and broke up with him. His fault, not yours. Frankel confronts you for your behaviors, and it’s his fault, not yours that you got caught. You decide to post drunk pictures of your rookie, catching Mayhorn and Vic in the crossfire, not your fault either.

“This is why you're never going to advance – you will never be captain. It’s not because I don’t like you. It’s not because Frankel’s not impressed. _It’s because you have zero insight into your own shortcomings._ You don’t admit fault. You don’t own your failures. And that is why you stay lieutenant!”

Andy stood there stunned and noticed no one in the room was jumping to her defense. “Do you feel this way? Bobby? Vic?”

Sullivan couldn’t meet her eyes.

“Okay!” Vic yelled. “Time for a girls' moment. To fix our bellies. Or something!”

* * *

“Was that necessary, Rip?” Sullivan asked his friend, who downed another glass of wine at the table.

“What do you think?”

Sullivan sat down and poured himself a glass of wine. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the whole bridal shower-TV thing. There never seemed like a good time to mention it. I guess I thought time would go by, and we could put it all behind us. I can’t say we were in our right mind at the time.”

“You think I’m pissed because you got your hook-up pregnant by watching me and Vic on the couch?”

“Not exactly my proudest moment. I'm sorry. If it helps, I was very drunk, and I have a pretty vague recollection of you two on the couch.” Sully drank the glass of wine and went for another.

“It’s not about that. It’s about her. She always makes it about her. I want you to understand; you are never going to win. She’ll just take and take from you as long as you keep giving. So I blame her for that,” Lucas said.

“You’ve got to blame me for some of this. I knew what I was getting into, and I wasn’t upfront with her about how I felt.”

“How do you feel? This is forever?” Lucas asked with a note of resignation.

“I would have never let it get this far if I didn’t -” Sully stopped uncertainly.

“Does she know you’re in love with her?” his best friend asked shortly.

Sully choked on his wine. “It’s not like it is with you and Vic. You have it so easy.”

“Vic is easy to love. She’s the most upfront person I know. If I’m doing something wrong, she tells me . . . which is probably why she left us alone for now.” Lucas refilled Sully’s glass. “I can’t believe I asked you for dating advice.”

“I don’t know why you did either. You won the ‘most romantic’ twice. I can’t even find a way to tell her how I feel - between blackmail pictures and ex-boyfriend’s weddings. Half the time I want to strangle her, and the other half I want to protect her from her worst impulses.”

“You’re sure she’s the One. No one else. Anyone else?” Lucas half pleaded.

“It would be easier, but I don’t want easy. I want her. Even if she burns everything around her down,” Sully admitted. “Can you please try to forgive me. And her?”

Lucas sat quietly for a long time. “Fine. For you, but mostly for Vic. She says Hererra gets enough punishment without me piling on.”

“Good,” Sully said. “You always have forgiven faster than I have. It's taken me a long time to forgive her, too. But I needed to . . . I want us to make it.”

“Then I suggest you telling her how you feel before the baby comes.”

“I wish I could. She's the type that's going to believe I'm saying it just because of the baby.”

"This is the type of boneheaded thinking that got you where you are today," Ripley pointed out.

"Shut up. Chief.” Sully grabbed the wine bottle and finished it off himself.

* * *

The women had retreated into the master bedroom.

“What voice mail is he talking about?” Andy’s voice was near panic, focused on the most insignificant piece of information. “When did I call Ryan? I haven’t spoken to Ryan for months?”

Vic rolled her eyes. Of course, Andy was stuck on this. There were bigger issues. “At my bachelorette party, Andy. You decided to call Ryan. I decided to let you pretend to call Ryan, but I had you call Lucas instead. I have access to his phone. I was going to delete the message. And I did, but I guess he heard it.”

[“What did I say? What did I say?”](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19209586/chapters/48300520)

Vic went for honesty. “It was not good. You implied you were in love with Ryan and that he could break up with Jenna. He was welcome to come back to you for sex any day after his upcoming divorce.”

“Why did you let me do that?” Andy shrieked.

“You were pretty insistent. I was trying to keep you from making a bad choice.”

“So he hates me because I left one voicemail almost a year ago on his phone by mistake? He basically called me a slut for that?”

“I would say my husband accused you of not treating his best friend fairly and focusing on yourself. He was pretty pissed about you sleeping around the Station and being the source of the photos Fitzpatrick used. The Ryan voicemail was the least of his concerns. It was probably lower than watching us have sex.”

“Not really helping, Vic.”

“It wasn't supposed to. I have less of a problem with the bridal shower sex because it’s never exactly been a secret that one of the reasons I took the Fire Chief home was because he was smoking hot. It wasn't part of my original plan to end up married to him and pregnant with his three of his babies."

“See, he's one to talk! He slept with a subordinate! He didn't tell anybody for a long time, and you guys got all sneaky married!” Andy retorted hotly.

"You're right," Vic said, wishing Andy would focus more on her behavior and less on Ripley’s. "But I don't think the situations are exactly the same."

“Did you ever throw his two divorces in his face?”

“Andy!” Vic went sharp. “My relationship with Ripley is NOT your business and all you are doing is digging your hole even deeper. He's been pissed at you ever since the strip mall. You weren’t fair to Sully, but you aren’t exactly going away. The air has to be cleared now, or it's never going to end.”

“This is what you consider clearing the air?”

“Did you want him to continue the way he was before?”

“You just said it. Me and Bobby is not his business, either.”

“It’s not the Chief’s business. It is the business of Sully’s best friend, and my husband who watched you be selfish. Can’t you admit you are at fault? Even a little. The photos? The hiding of the pregnancy?”

Andy took a slow deep breath. “Yeah, I'm stupid, and I'm selfish sometimes. I got it. Everybody is a little selfish. If you weren’t, you wouldn't be married to Ripley. You wanted him so you went and got him.”

“I wanted him so much I didn’t take any prisoners. I love him. Do you feel the same way about Sully?”

There were a few seconds of silence before Andy said, “Yes, I want him. I want him to want to be with me. I don't want this baby to be the be-all-end-all of our relationship. I want him to love me. Not love the baby and by extension me - I want what you have.”

And there it was. Andy burst into tears. “Your love -it's effortless. You never lied to him. You never hid things from him. No blame. No secrets. No guilt. He sees you, you see him. There’s no one else in the room. No one else in the world. I want that - I want it so badly, but I don't think he feels that for me. I think I feel it for him, but I can't let him see that. If he doesn’t feel the same way . . . I don’t know what I would do.”

"What do you think he feels?" Vic asked gently. They were finally getting somewhere. One of the reasons Andy constantly made selfish decisions because she was fundamentally insecure and feared losing. She self-sabotaged so she didn’t get hurt.

“I don’t know. He’s been pretty unhappy with me this week. The only time I’m sure he’s into me is when I’m tied. . .”

“He ties his pregnant girl up to the bed?” Vic perked up a little.

Now Andy was embarrassed. “Yes, but lately that part has been less intense. Still, when we’re together in the bedroom, that’s the only time I’m sure he’s completely focused on me. When he’s ordering me around and stuff, it's okay because he’s fully present on me and only me.”

“And outside of the bedroom?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never been with someone who was willing to listen to me talk. He listens to me and doesn’t talk much. I worry there’s a distance or something he can’t say to me. What if I’m not enough? What if he needs something that I’m not? I don’t want to be the thing that keeps him from being happy . . . but I don’t want him to go.”

“Then the first thing you need to do is not drive him away. And a big step would be apologizing to Ripley and me about the photos. I know it isn’t all your fault, but people got hurt. We got hurt. Sully got hurt.”

“Do I have to?” Andy sniffed, blowing her nose on a kleenex from the box by the bed.

“Andy, I can't make you do anything. But if fifteen years and Claire's death didn't break their friendship, do you think that the Chief losing his temper on Sullivan's behalf is going to make him any less part of Sullivan's life?”

“Okay, that is a good point. and I should probably be on speaking terms with your husband who also happens to be my fire chief.

"Okay, let's do it."

"You meant right now, this second?" Andy was back in panic mode.

"No time like the present. All right we're coming out!" Vic breezed back into the dining room as if the whole argument hadn't happened. "Stop the making out, man hugging or whatever it is you two were doing."

Ripley was the one who stepped forward first. “I'm sorry about my words. They were unkind. I was not being fair to you.”

Andy went all in. “But I deserved it. You were right, and it’s time I owned it. Yes. Your best friend and I got drunk and had sex here. The baby was conceived here. I hadn’t been in a relationship with anyone for almost a year, and I haven’t been in any relationships with anyone else since. Yes, I didn't tell him about the baby. When I found out I was pregnant 6 weeks in, I should have told him. Instead, I broke up with him when I got the slightest hint he wouldn’t support my career. We’re back together now, no thanks to me, but I’m not ready to marry him yet. You and Vic had been together for six months when you got married. We barely have reached that mark.”

S he stopped. Vic nudged her with a foot and made a ‘get on with it gesture.’

“And I am sorry about the pictures. I was thoughtless. I never expected Fitzpatrick to use my account to get to Vic. I can’t take it back, but I can help the Department catch her.” Andy checked back with Vic. “Is there anything else I need to apologize for? Watching you two during the bridal-”

Vic cut Ripley off before he could open his mouth, “We’re good.” She gave Ripley a Look. “All good. Now shake hands.”

“Sully already apologized for that. The less we speak of it, the better. But next time, please just don't.”

With that, everyone sat down for some sugar-free apple pie. The tension had dissipated. Nothing in the situation had changed. Still, Andy and Ripley had gotten it all out there, and there was a more separate peace. Thirty minutes later, the Herrera-Sullivans left, and it was just the Ripleys.

Vic wagged her finger at her husband. “Lucas Ripley, do you expect me to believe that was your version of being NICE?”

“Was I that bad?” he asked.

“Yes. Seriously bad. Epically bad. It's a good thing you're cute because it's a little too late to go back on my decision to keep you.” She cleared the dishes off the table, including the two unused ones.

“What if I do something to make you forgive me?” Lucas sidled up behind her and laid a hand on her stomach. “They do need a father.”

“I guess I can see if you can come up with something,” Vic said. He started kissing her enthusiastically. Dishes forgotten, he led her toward the bedroom.

“I think I can,” Lucas said.

And he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wasn't that exciting? Did you think Andy's water was going to break during the meal? Did you think Ripley was going to stab her with a spoon? Were you surprised that everyone is in love?
> 
> What do you think will happen next? Is FP going to be fooled by a few plates? Where will Andy deliver?


	13. Week 24 - The One with the Besties

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I updated at last!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I got something done. I have figured out how to start writing at a faster pace, I promise. The next chapter won't be so long coming.

**August**

**Vic Week 24 - Ear of corn**

**Andy Week 37**

* * *

Two weeks after the information about Fitzpatrick became available, Chief Ripley, Mayor Duncan and Police Chief Reyes addressed a crowd of reporters from the courthouse.

Francis was helping direct things. "And now Chief Ripley has a short statement to read."

"We have done an internal investigation and determined that a former member of our staff was involved in using city funds to purchase embarrassing photos and videos of myself and my wife, Victoria Ripley. The misuse of city funds is not acceptable, and we apologize for our involvement in this incident. Furthermore, it has been determined that some of the more recent photos insinuating illicit relationships between Victoria and other firefighters were taken from personal accounts at intra-Station activities and supplied to the public edited and out of context. We are going to pursue legal recourse under the Washington State Revenge Porn law and civil action for defamation of character on behalf for Victoria Ripley against Hannah Fitzpatrick and her accomplice Mara Hightower, former assistant to the Mayor. Please address next to the questions to Mayor Duncan." A rumble swept through the crowd while Mayor Duncan stepped up to the mic.

"Can you please elaborate on Chief Ripley's statement?" A reporter in the front row shouted at the Mayor.

"Yes. It appears that my former assistant, Maura Hightower helped acquire security footage of Chief Ripley and his wife from Seattle PD which was leaked to the media. She also used photographs of Chief and Mrs. Ripley taken by the city photographer to strengthen the defamation."

"Your former assistant?" someone asked.

"Yes. It is not appropriate for any member of our city government to deliberately precipitate an attack on another official. Ms. Hightower has since been fired and we will be determining whether or not additional civil or criminal charges need to be pursued against her beyond the civil ones already in place."

"Chief Reyes, what do you have to say about this? You're already under a lot of fire for how your officers handled the Valentine's day incident. Now you gave away blackmail videos of the fire chief."

Reyes approached the microphone. "I want to apologize to Chief Ripley on behalf of Seattle PD as he has been nothing since except gracious since the involvement of our department was discovered. We are currently examining our protocols and procedures to determine how this information was procured. It is our duty to make sure both the letter and the spirit of the laws was followed. We take these accusations and irregularities very seriously."

"We appreciate your time on this matter. Now Frances Smith and my new assistant Jeannette Bangle will be available to answer further questions," Duncan excused herself.

The three city officials walked off of the stage and met in the back.

"I am sorry," Chief Reyes looked at Ripley. "I don't even know how say it."

"Not as sorry as I am," Duncan said.

"I want to dispense with this bullshit now," Ripley stated. "Francis Smith right now is answering why I'm not demanding a DNA test on my poor innocent wife. Both of your offices were complicit in this and the most we can come up with is toothless civil litigation. The Revenge Porn law doesn’t carry jail time.”

"I know. I know," Duncan tried to apologize.

"I hope you keep this in mind when the day comes that the NOSHA investigation comes back. You'll have to pick a side," Ripley warned.

"I will be on your side," Reyes said. "You could have buried us over the strip mall. Vernoff screwed up everything. 225 people dead. Yes, that's on me in my department. You guys kept it professional; you didn't join the pile on, and you didn't accuse.” Police Chief Reyes addressed Duncan. “I'll help him bury you.”

Duncan was no fool, “I understand.”

“Good,” Ripley said. “Just so we all know where we stand.”

* * *

Vic was watching the news from the lounge post shift with Travis and Jack. She saw each of the carefully prepared statements and then the new assistant spokeswoman try take questions. It was obvious that Francis was taking the lead on all of this.

And yet some assholes reporter still brought up whether or not Chief Ripley was going to get a DNA test.

Vic started to half stand, but she felt Travis's and Jack's reassuring hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry," Jack said. "She's got this."

Francis gave the questioner a withering stare one typically reserved for carrion. "That's rather unfortunate, isn't it? I do have a response from Chief Ripley on this. Let me consult my notes." She didn't even pretend to check her notes. "'We are not testing, and it's none of your damn business anyway.' If I receive another question related to Chief Ripley's personal life and not about Fitzpatrick or Hightower, this press conference is over. Does anyone have any questions about that?" The reporter sat down. "I didn't think so."

"She use that tone on you?" Travis asked Jack.

"Only if I'm really really really bad."

Vic playfully punched him in the shoulder. "So once a week."

“Mostly never. I think I might have gotten the tone once I was having a bad night and moving the furniture for like the eighth time.”

“I thought you guys live in a one-bedroom,” Travis remembered.

“Yeah, it was in the morning. Not one of my better days.”

“Is your PTSD better?” Vic asked.

Jack nodded slightly, “Most days I'm good. I go to therapy once a week or so. But like the day that Jackson Avery died, anytime I enter a high building, it can be tough.”

“What does she do?” Vic wondered with a lot of interest.

“Usually she makes me some tea and cuddles with me.”

"Cuddles with you?" Travis said doubtfully

"Yes," Jack said. "No need to go into the details. It's cuddling."

"Right," Vic said. “A cuddle and shot of sex always makes it better.”

"It did work for you," Travis pointed out and indicated her belly. "It worked really well."

Vic’s face fell, "Not as well as you think."

“You think the Chief has PTSD?” Jack noted.

"I don't know," Vic said, choosing not to mention the taser or Luke’s therapy. “He’s coping. He’s protective.”

"Jack?"

"There's a border between protectiveness PTSD. The stuff he's facing is very real. But I was so bad I couldn't go out on calls. He just scared about you and -" Jack's eyes rested on her belly - "and your family."

"Yeah," Travis said "If my wife were going through what you did. I might not be my regular self."

"You don't have a wife."

"But I see enough of Andy and Sullivan to make a judgment on that."

"What are talkin’ about?" Dean asked, walking by.

"How much protectiveness is too protective if a girl is pregnant?" Travis said.

"I believe in a woman's right to choose and or perform hope surgery up until the minute she delivers a baby,” Dean said.

Travis startled on that. "Are you saying that you and Maggie?"

"Oh no, no, no, no, no!” Dean protested. “I also mean the right to choose includes the selection of the two mandatory forms of birth control. Or at least one form that is extremely reliable."

"Man on man 100 percent prevents pregnancy," Travis suggested.

Dean batted his hand away. "Very funny. But you know I think it is time for Captain Bishop to view the sex 101 again with the rookies and our transfers."

"I know people only get pregnant when you have sex at my house," Vic said.

“That’s why no one is ever having a party there again. The wedding shower is at the houseboat.” Dean vowed.

* * *

*** New part 11/29***

"So what are week cooking today?" Travis asked Levi who had finally stopped by Travis's house. Levi didn't respond at first. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing . . . I'm thinking," Levi answered.

"Is it because we didn't go to a steakhouse lately? Is all the tofu you've been eating a problem?" Travis tried to insert some levity.

"No, it's not like that," Levi said. "It's just that it's August. Not July anymore."

"Yes, it's been two months since that house hiding all the fireworks exploded. Yes, July. We've had a whole photography scandal, a secret triplets reveal, and a helicopter crash since then," Travis said.

"Trav, I don't think you're thinking about what July means to me?"

"It's not either of our birthdays."

"I meant for doctor me. Dr. Schmidt. July is the start of a new academic year for residents."

"I knew that." Travis tried not to show exasperation. "It's a good thing because you've advanced to fourth year."

"It is, " Levi agreed. "It also is when they start asking you if you want to sub-specialize. If I want to go into a surgical specialty, not general surgery, I need to specialize this year and then match into a fellowship for my fifth year to move my fellowship as my sixth year. Dr. Koracik has been on my case to pick something."

"Oh", Travis said. "So what you're trying to say is-"

"They're asking me about my future plans. Which I don't have."

Now it was Travis's turn to be quiet. Then he asked, "Do you want to do a fellowship?"

"I honestly wasn't sure I'd even finished my first year. I'm pretty sure that all the attendings were taking bets if I would wash out when they called me 'Glasses'. But I didn't fail, I didn't wash out. I'm improving and now they think I have a future."

"So what do you think about the future?"

Levi looked uncomfortable. "Remember how I said I was single cuz my old boyfriend took a fellowship somewhere else. That's the exact thing. We'd been dating for a few months; he killed somebody and then he took a fellowship out of state."

"He just packed up and left?"

"In the medical world, you get offered a choice of fellowships, and it's up to you which one you want to take. The easiest way to break up with someone is to take a fellowship. 'Sorry, I'm moving away. It's not you. It's me - my career opportunity couldn't be passed up so we're breaking up. It's not emotional. It's business.'"

"I would say that the opposite of not emotional," Travis said, "There're three hospital systems in this area, and some just a state away if you wanted something to work, you could have picked a fellowship that kept you close."

"You know there was a doctor I never met, a Cristina Yang. She went and did her fellowship in cardio-thoracic in Minnesota at Mayo clinic. After she learned some amazing techniques, she brought those back to Seattle. Dr. Pierce did her fellowship in a different place than she did her residency. Amelia Shepherd did a neurosurgery fellowship, private practice, and then came here. I don't even talk about how many places Koracick has been. Hunt trained elsewhere. Link trained elsewhere," Levi recited an entire list.

"So you think you'd be better off training somewhere else?"

"I've never been good at anything before. Now I have the possibility that I could change somewhere else. I'm going to be a senior resident. I could go somewhere and really push myself."

"Is that what you want - to push yourself?" Travis asked.

"I don't know. I know you don't get it since you've never -" Levi trailed off.

"I've never what?" Travis asked quietly.

Levi's voice raised a few pitches. "Well. I didn't want it to come out this way but, here we are. You're one of the most senior members at your station, and you've never applied to be lieutenant. Maya Bishop, your captain, has been a firefighter fewer years than you."

"Thank you, Levi," Travis said with no small amount of bitterness.

"Hey I'm not trying to be mean," his boyfriend protested. "I just assumed that you don't want to do any of that since you never applied."

"You don't understand because you've never really lost anybody," Travis disagreed. "I was happy at my old station, I was happy with Michael. I was there for four years. Then he died. When I got up in the morning, I didn't want leave my house. Station 19 was the reason that I got up. It kept me going."

"I get that that's what it's like to be on a team. I have it at Grey Slone, but all of us are going to graduate and we'll all move on to solo careers. Like Destiny's Child."

"It's not the same. During the captain's race, I had a day where I was the captain. I hated the pressure. I hated everyone depending on me to make the calls. It was just one day. And look at this past year. Hundreds of people died in that strip mall. We saved the seven people. Seven - that's it. That was because Bishop did something crazy. Something that I didn't imagine."

"You don't know you don't have those qualities. I didn't know I couldn't be a surgeon." Levi thought he was being supportive.

Travis didn't see it that way. "I do have those qualities. I mentored Vic; I'm training our rookies and transfers. I can do all of those things without being an officer. I don't need to be promoted. I know my worth."

They both stood there in silence. Finally, Levi spoke. "I think I'm going to go back to my apartment. I've got some cases I need to study. And you've given me a lot to think about."

* * *

Travis invited himself over on his day off to have lunch with Vic. This was one of the first times, he'd seen her in a maternity dress, waddling around the house.

"What's it like?" Travis asked.

What's what like?" Vic asked and set down peanut butter sandwiches in front of both of them. Peanut butter was on the list of acceptable food alternatives, unlike deli meat.

"Being pregnant," he said. "It's not exactly something I'm going to have to do. If Levi and I make it, having a baby will be more complicated for us than it is with you.

"If Levi and you make it?" Vic hadn't missed his implication.

"Yeah, answer my question first and then we can talk about me and Levi."

She gave him a doubtful glance but then collected her thoughts. "Pregnant?. It's kind of like your body is doing stuff not in your control. I've totally ballooned in size, my ankles are huge. My hair is like insane. If Ripley weren't helping me with it, I'd lose all sorts of brushes and hair picks in this." She picked a spoon off the table and shoved it into her hair. It immediately disappeared into the massive curls and didn't fall out.

"That's impressive," Travis agreed. "That's not really how it feels".

'It's amazing," Vic admitted and retrieved the spoon. "I have human beings growing inside of me, three of them. They like to move and kick each other and kick me. All these baby books and TV shows claim that I should be able to tell one triplet from the other. I can't. I feel these weird misshapen bumps in my belly, and, if you press on them, sometimes they move. It's crazy but they are half me, half Ripley, and all loved."

Travis started to reach out a hand and remembered he needed to ask first. "Can I?"

"I usually don't let people touch but, since you're you, I'll let you do it this once. Seems you'll have the easiest time feeling whichever one this one is. Carina's named them A, B, and C, but I feel like they switch spots sometimes.

She carefully placed Travis's hand on the upper left portion of her abdomen. He pressed his hand downward a little bit. There was a brief sense of something withdrawing slightly through her skin. Vic pushed his hand a little deeper, and whatever it was suddenly moved.

"Oh my God!" Travis jumped back.

Vic started to laugh, "You should imagine what it feels like on the inside."

"Did I hurt it? Did it headbutt me?"

"I don't know. It could have been a head or a butt or a foot. Each of them weighs less than two pounds. What did you think?"

"It's kind of like trying to touch a puppy under a blanket," Travis admitted

"Pretty cool, huh? To think that someday that puppy will grow up and learn how to talk and become a firefighter. Or a doctor. Or whatever the puppy wants to be."

"Is this it for you guys? You doing it all in one fell swoop?"

Vic flushed a little bit. "If you ask him, he'd probably say this should be enough. He never thought he'd have any let alone three."

"But I didn't ask you what he wanted, I asked what you wanted," Travis observed.

Vic didn't face him directly, instead, she looked at the front door. "I don't really remember being dead. It comes and it goes - a glimpse here and there. But I did die. And any of us could. A wrong step in a fire, active shooter at the bridal shop. If it happens to one of us, the other has to go on. This way whoever is left won't be alone. . . so I think I want more."

"You want more in case one of you dies?"

"I want more because of love him. And I love these padawans. Besides those guys over at Wedgewood and Mount Rainier do it," Vic said.

"Those guys at Wedgewood and Mount Rainier are Orthodox Jews and they don't do it. They have wives that do it," Travis reminded her.

"Don't rain on my baby parade. I understand that I'm 30. I'll have these three this year and hopefully have one or two more. I can fit that in before I turn 35. Ripley's not exactly going to fight putting out."

"Makes sense, if you end up with Medic One," Travis hesitated. "Then again, look what it's doing to Andy."

"Her problems are not my problems." She looked at Travis closely. "Why the long face, Trav? Your future babies probably won't involve hiding a pregnancy or being accused of cheating on your husband with your old boyfriend."

"That's true," he agreed. "My boyfriend has never accused me of cheating. He only implied I don't have any ambition."

"Levi told you you don't have any ambition?"

"Yes, he pointed out that people who started firefighting after me became captains, and I'm still just me."

"What brought this on?"

"He started talking about trying to pick out a fellowship and moving away after his fifth year," Travis said.

"Didn't he just finish his third year and that is two years away."

"He has to start planning his future now." Travis said, "At least you have some ambition. Unlike me.

"You take that back," Vic said. "My ambition is not just to have babies. Don't get confused here."

"I didn't mean that," Trevor said, "I meant your plans to get your college degree this year and join Medic One in a couple of years. Unlike me, who apparently is a loser because I don't want to be an officer."

"Why aren't you interested in becoming an officer?" Vic asked. "I don't think about being an officer because I'm not allowed to be an officer."

"I don't want to be an officer because I to carry the team on my shoulders. Everyone who I see become an officer struggle with all their responsibilities. I mean, look at you and Ripley."

"Me and Ripley what?" Vic did not sound pleased.

"Every time you in the field, he has to decide how to interact with you. Or he's worried about whether or not his choices hurt you,. It's got a tear him up inside. I heard how he looked in the strip mall fire. It was hard for me, and I wasn't even in charge. It doesn't even include the carbon monoxide or the building explosion. Or when you jumped in to save that drowned kid."

"I'm doing my job," Vic protested. "He understands that. I know it's hard for him sometimes, but he's got it under control."

Travis didn't seem to hear her, "And with the babies, I just don't know how he does it."

"Wait, are you saying that you think that I should be protected or something? Just because I'm pregnant and just because I'm married to the chief."

"No, I'm not," Travis realized he might have stepped in it. "I'm just saying that it's got to be hard for him. Because you're important to him, and all of his firefighters are important to him."

"Sullivan never had a problem with Andy," Vic reminded him.

"They switched their shifts to avoid commanding her. Now he's not in control of anything that she does."

"Are you saying you think Ripley is a control freak?" Vic asked.

"No. I just think that fire chief is the worst possible job, and your current situation just adds to his stress."

"This isn't really helping, Trav." Vic was getting pissed.

"I thought we were talking about my problem anyway."

"Your problem is that you and Levi are early in your relationship, and discovered you hadn't talked about the future. You tried to talk about it and you made a mess out of it. You guys need a five-year plan or something."

"Yeah? What is your and Ripley's Five-Year Plan?"

"I'm going to finish paramedic school, be a paramedic here, and then transfer to Medic One. All in the next 5 years."

"What?" Travis said. "You're going to leave that soon?"

Vic sighed, "I love the team. I love firefighting. I'm never going to get a fair chance as a firefighter if I'm married to Ripley. But our team's not going to stay together forever. All our lieutenants can't be Captain. They're going to transfer to somewhere else."

"And what is Ripley doing in this five-year plan??"

Vic checked around like she thought the walls were listening. "I think he wants to take some time off after the babies are born. You know, spend some vacation time. He's never been a dad before, and he's going to be turning 45. I don't think he wants to miss their babyhood."

"That's The Five-Year plan? You quit the station and the Chief goes to part-time?" Travis stated with disbelief.

"Neither of us are quitting! He has a ton of vacation. He barely took time off when I almost died." Vic visibly controlled herself. "Besides, Freckles, none of that is happening for years. I'm supposed to get experience as a paramedic here first. They saw how valuable it was to have Ben on aid care full-time, and this is how I'm going to contribute."

"But then you just going to move on."

"So? I'm going to be 34. He's going to be almost 50. Why are we arguing about this? I haven't even had these babies."

Travis took a deep breath. First, he fought with Levi and now he was lashing out at his best friend. "Right. You are completely right."

Vic rubbed her belly and sat down. "You're having a shitty day, huh?"

"Yeah, I"m batting a thousand on pissing the people I care about off." He sighed. "Did you call the babies 'padawans?''

"Don't tell Lucas. He vetoed all made-up words. He calls them the 'Three Amigos.'" She patted her belly. "I think it would be cool if they had Force powers."

"Levi would approve," Travis said, trying not to sound too mournful. "Will I be allowed to babysit?"

"Absolutely, provided you have all your shots and you keep your CPR certification. And speak Mandarin." Vic teased.

"I speak Pig-Latin."

"I'll make an exception for you." Vic noticed he hadn't touched his peanut butter sandwich. "If you don't eat that, I will."

"It's all mine." Travis folded the sandwich in half and shoved the entire thing in his mouth. Hangout out with Vic always made him feel better.

Even if she hadn't included Travis in her Five-Year-Plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tough break that they can't be charged with criminal activities. 
> 
> For the new part - do you think Travis and Levi are going to make it? This chapter might feel like filler, but it isn't. I


	14. Week 25 - The one with the Krasniy Oktyabr

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andy doesn't know it's her last day on the job. What's going to happen? Can Vic help her in time?
> 
> Updated on 1/11/21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title is a Hunt for Red October reference. You'll see why.
> 
> My boycott of Station 19 after season 2 continues - want nothing to do with anyone that erases Ripley.

**Late August**

**Vic Week 25 – eggplant**

**Andy Week 38,**

* * *

When Andy Herrera woke up that Monday morning, she didn't know it was going to be her last day of work. She stretched languorously and rolled over in bed to look at her not-a-fiance. Hilariously, Bobby slept with his mouth open. For a guy who seemed to tensely carry his burdens on his shoulders, it was strange to see how he could relax in sleep. . . .

Maybe it wasn't so strange. She had no prior experience with someone who went full long term commitment.

He opened one dark brown eye and placed a hand on her cheek with the other on her too big belly. "How did the ladies sleep last night?"

"I slept great. Like the dead." Andy felt bad since Ben Warren had died not so long ago. "I slept great for an hour, and then I'd have to go to the bathroom."

"I noticed, you woke me up."

"I did not!" she protested. "You slept for the first three times. You woke up for the fourth one."

"But I made it worth your while, didn't I, Lieutenant? We could go back to sleep now." Bobby stuck his head in the crook of her shoulder, coiling around her belly. He was so much longer than her, and she had plenty of shape to coil around now. Lots of shape as in huge boobs and belly.

Andy rolled away to check the clock. "7:30. My shift starts at 9. Are you planning on being a three-minute-man?"

"I don't do three minutes. Not enough time to warm you up and make you scream . . . it might be enough time to make you wet. Let me help." Before she could protest, he divided between her legs and spread her open. He licked her a few times. "Lieutenant, don't talk, but feel free to come."

It only took him five minutes to accomplish his task. "Bobby!"

Afterward, she got dressed in her double XL hoodie. It wouldn't have covered her belly and boobs, but Francis found a place for Andy and Vic to get their hoodies custom made. Andy got the arms cut down with extra panels added. Vic's arms were left alone, but she was given 'current panels' and 'future panels' for later.

There wouldn't be a later, however. Andy had taken careful selfies of herself with a tiny reflection of Vic in the mirror to post on Facebook. Then Hastings ordered both of them to never return to the shop. Any alterations or repairs would be handled personally by his wife. Ripley or Bobby would be in charge of the secret hoodie hand-off.

Her lover called her back to the present. Bobby had been hovering, a lot. "You have my number."

"Yes, I have your number," she acknowledged dutifully.

"I'm going to be at HQ all day. No meetings. If anything happens, call me right away."

"I will call you if my body decides to give birth. Don't worry, I will not call you if I stub my toe." Andy reminded herself he was coming from a good place. 

"If you have downtime today, I've printed out a few realtors' listings. We're going to need to move somewhere bigger. Daycare will start here, but, whenever the Ripley triplets come, baby girl will be over there most of the time. Still, sometimes, we'll have all four babies over in a pinch."

"Yes, I know, but I think other people lived in one-room cabins and had like 14 kids. I'm sure they will not die for having to be in only one bedroom for a few hours.'

He laughed, still a sound that she wasn't quite used to hearing. "Just look at the listings."

"Fine, yeah," she picked up a hefty pile of papers and carried them off with her. She got her truck and drove to the station. Lineup was different now because it involved she and Vic sitting on a bench. Blake and Dean carried the bench into the barn every day for lineup and carried it back.

Vic was in her hoodie too, and her belly might actually have been bigger than Andy's.

Maya had gone the extra mile. She had converted a section of the gym into a seating area with two fainting couches. Per her instructions, they were to sleep there at any point during shift. In fact, she did not want them to go upstairs to the bunkrooms. Lunch was henceforth served in the gym and they were excused from cooking duty. The gym as also now stocked with low-carb Bobby and Ripley-approved pregnancy snacks, should either of them be struck by a craving. 

Andy would have preferred the bunk room. It was dark and private. Besides, Vic never slept. She was constantly working on the computer. She said she was studying, but Andy didn't think her paramedic class was that rigorous.

Everything was going to change when they got the next aid car call.

* * *

***** UPDATED!****

It was after lunch when they got the call. A tour bus was having a medical emergency. The guide had chest pain and had parked in downtown Seattle. By the time Vic and Andy got there, police were already on scene. Fortunately, Ryan wasn't one of them.

“You assess the situation,” Vic said, slightly breathless as usual, "I'll get the gurney down."

"I'm Officer Blaylock," the police officer greeted Andy. "We've got a whole group of Ukrainian tourists. This gentleman is complaining of left sided chest pain and sweating."

  
"Okay," she said to the overweight man was sitting against the bus. "What's your name?"  
  
  
"Vladimir Kushnirenk. I need you to go on the bus and tell them everything is okay. Listen carefully. 'Uspokoysya. YA zdes' chtobypomoch.'" Andy repeated it back. "Good enough."

"You should be careful with that belly. You're not going to deliver here are you?" Officer Blaylock asked.

"Better not." Andy said and radioed Vic, "Patient diaphoretic, needs eval for left-sided chest pain. I've got to go on the bus and reassure the other tourists."

She climbed up the stairs with Blaylock behind her and said, "Uspokoysya. YA zdes' chtobypomoch." About forty faces smiled at her over their red eyes . . .

Wait . . . Red eyes? Several of the people had a bright red rash on their faces, and almost everyone was coughing.

"Vic, there's something here on the bus - lots of people with pink eyes, cough, and some have a rash.

  
"What did you say?" Vic asked quickly. "Coughing, pink eyes, and rash."

"Yeah, all of them." Andy glanced up and down the rows. "Really, all of them."

"Get off the bus right now! Tell them to stay on the bus. Have the police officer or someone else tell them to stay on the bus. Get off of the bus!" Vic's voice cracked with urgency.

"Okay." Andy repeated the words she hoped meant 'stay calm.' "Uspokoysya."

She waddled her way down the steps and saw Vic arrived with the jump bag and the gurney. Oddly, she was wearing one of the N-95 respirators when they usually didn't even wear masks. She handed one to Andy.

"What's going on?" Andy asked, taking the mask.

"Put that on right now. You too, officer," Vic commanded and put on one of the infection control gowns they rarely used. "Dispatch, I need you to contact grey Sloan memorial you right now and get me anyone who speaks Russian right now."

Andy put the mask on and helped Vic and the police officer get the driver onto the gurney. Vic's eyes were wide and frightened.

“What's wrong?” Andy said. 

A couple of tourists started to peek their heads over the bus stairs. Vic said, "I need someone to tell them to stay on the bus."

"Ostavaytes' na meste. Uspokoysya," Vlad the driver said tiredly. "Officer Blaylock, repeat that, and make sure they stay on the bus. But please do not try to shoot anyone. Do not raise your gun."

Andy was completely confused now, "What do you think they have?"

“They have measles, Andy. I mean - I don't know if they have measles, but they could have measles," Vic answered, muffled by the mask.

“Haven't we all had our shots against measles?”

Vic said, "You don't understand. There is a measles outbreak in Ukraine - it's the most contagious illness on the planet and it's airborne. Measles vaccine protects greater than 90% of people, which means about 10 % aren't. If you're exposed, you can usually get a third vaccination. Problem is that it kills pregnant women, causes permanent brain damage and death in infants."

"It's okay. I've had the shot and I'm okay with getting another one."

“They can't. You're pregnant. They can't give it to you. You've been exposed to measles.”

"How do you know this?" Andy stared at Vic like she'd grown two heads, instead of three people inside.

"Lots of classes. And Lucas has a long list of possible pregnant woman dangers - measles is on it."

The radio crackled, "We've got somebody named Tom Koracick."

"This is Tom Koracick. You need someone who speaks Russian?"

"Do you have Chief Hunt and the head of infectious disease with you. We have an entire bus of suspected measles patients from Ukraine. Please warn Dr. DeLuca that we have two pregnant women here."

"How can I help?"

"Officer Blaylock will hold up the radio for you to tell them in Russian that everything is fine and we need them to stay on the bus. They will go to the hospital for a health check."  
  


"Will do," he said.

Officer Blaylock climbed the steps with their radio, turning it up to full volume. 

"What do we do now?" Andy asked.

"No idea. I think we have to see Dr. DeLuca next," Vic said.

The police officer came back down. The radio spoke to them. "We're starting emergency containment protocol for the hospital. Chief Hunt will have the ID team standing by with me because they're not going to understand if I'm not there. I have instructions for the patient and the pregnant women to be evaluated also at Grey Sloan right now."

"All right, we need someone to drive the bus," Andy said making eye contact with the police officer.

Dispatch was the one who answered her, "We're sending Engine 19. Someone should be able to drive the bus."

While they loaded the patient into the aid car, Engine 19 arrived with their sirens and on. Maya was the first one out.

"You two get to the hospital, figure out what's going on. I'll talk to you when you get back. Gibson, you're the driver."

"Awesome?" he said. "Got a hazmat suit?"

"Just this." Vic handed him the respirator. "You speak any Russian?"

"Da," Jack said.

"Really, you do?" Maya asked, shocked.

"One of my foster parents had alot of Tom Clancy novels as a kid. I can say 'Where is the Red October? The nuclear reactor is fine, and fire the torpedoes. Strelyat' torpedami!"

"You're going to be a wonderful son-in-law. No wonder Francis's family loves you," Maya observed dryly. 

"Don't knock the power." Jack put on the mask and climbed the stairs.

When Vic and Andy passed Grey Sloan, they saw the outdoor triage being set up in the parking lot. They signed out their patient to the crew wearing N-95s and faced Carina DeLuca.

"You two again? I got a message to get down here STAT.”

Vic shrugged. "We haven't been here for almost 2 months as patients. Other than OB appointments."

It was fortunate that Andy and Lucas had cleared the airbecause their appointments often overlapped. Vic had an ultrasound with OB visit every two weeks and Andy was being seen weekly. 

Carina led them away from the Trauma bay. "What is it this time? Stabbed? Jumped into water? More toxic gas?"

"Suspected measles exposure," Vic said.

Catrina started to cough, "Your husband is going to lose it."

"Oh, I don't have a suspected measle exposure. I wore my N-95 respirator. She got on the bus with all the measles patients.

Now Carina was looking at Andy like she was a particularly dirty piece of tissue. She picked up a phone and made a brief phone call and then said, "Keep your masks on and follow me."  
  


"Okie Dokie," Vic said. Andy noted she was quite relaxed because she hadn't done anything dangerous. The Chief would be happy she hadn't entered a dangerous situation and wore her personal protective equipment. Bobby might not be thrilled. 

They were taken to a section of the hospital that she's never been in a floor below the hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Carina led them through a set of double doors, waited for them to close, and then through another set of double doors. "This is our negative pressure room. We have four of them and they are reserved for airborne disease - measles, chickenpox, active TB, SARS. I can't let you out of these rooms because one case of measles could kill all of my patients and all the babies."

"You think we're contagious? I didn't even go in!" Vic protested.

"You can't be contagious yet, but we can't take a risk. I need you to decontaminate here. Then we're going to draw measles titers. By tomorrow we should know if you have antibodies and are immune. If you are negative, we'll have to consider the possibility of delivering Andrea immediately and giving both of you IVIG."

Andy started worrying, "We might deliver tomorrow? We might not even have measles!"

Carina turned on the TV where the news crews were gathering with the breaking news story. "Most of you have never seen measles before, but I have. I can't vaccinate you! If you aren't immune, you are close enough to delivery that I can deliver you and the baby - then I can give you both IVIG to give you temporary immunity. Victoria cannot be vaccinated, and I cannot deliver her so she will get the IVIG if she isn't immune."

"But I wore my respirator. I wasn't exposed," Vic protested.

"You touched the chest pain patient?" Carina waited for a beat. "You should be safe, yes, but do you think I want to take a chance on you? On the triplets?"

Vic paled under her respirator. Andy felt good for about a second until Carina kept talking.

"Once you decontaminate, Vic can go home. If you aren't immune, you'll be back tomorrow for IVIG. Andy will stay here overnight so we can deliver her tomorrow if necessary."

* * *

Sullivan and Ripley were in Francis's office watching the TV while she spoke to Grey Sloan on the phone. Maya was addressing the cameras about how they had moved the bus without exposing the city and the health department would begin contact tracing. It was split screened with the isolation tent.

Francis was on the phone with Grey Sloan getting updates. "Yes, yes. I understand."

Ripley got up and stared at the TV screen. "I don't see the aid car. Where is the aid car? Dispatch said they arrived at Grey Sloan."

Francis hung up the phone. "Good news. Aid Car is being disinfected and will be back in rotation at 19 shortly. Andy Herrera and Victoria Ripley are fine and getting checked out by Dr. Carina DeLuca. They couldn't share any details beyond that. Don't start yelling, sir."

Clearly, Ripley's reactions to situations with potential injury/harm to Vic were well known.

Sullivan's phone played the Macarena. He answered it immediately, "Andy are you okay?"

Francis mouthed 'Macarena?' to Ripley as Sullivan listened intently to the conversation on the other end. 

"The Chief will like that. I understand. Okay, I'll see you." Sullivan hung up and raised a hand. "Everything is fine, Chief. Vic was not exposed to measles. She identified the problem and wore a respirator the whole time. Only Andy was exposed."

Ripley started to relax and then recovered. "I'm sorry, Sully. I assumed it was Vic. It's usually her.'

"Both of them are vaccinated, Dr. DeLuca is hopeful their titers will come back showing they are immune to the virus by tomorrow. Vic is allowed to go back to the station. Andy will stay overnight in isolation as a precaution. If she is not immune, they will induce her to deliver tomorrow."

"How are you so calm about this?" Ripley asked.

"Well, the next thing that is going to happen is that I will inform Hastings I'm going to see my girlfriend in isolation, wearing a respiratory. Maybe tomorrow I'll be a dad," he said. "According to Andy, Dr. DeLuca is confident they can protect the baby before any possible infection occurs."

"You've informed this Chief. If Vic is still around, can you remind her to call me?" Ripley said wearily.

"I can, but can't promise she will," Sullivan said.

Ripley's cell phone beeped. I am fine. Don't worry. Get back to work. 

Vic was waiting around after texting Ripley when a new visitor wearing an N-95 respirator arrived.

"Hi, guys!" Maya said cheerfully. You're not going to believe the day I'm having! 

Vicki turned off the TV show about sexy surgeons she'd been watching. "This show is on all the time. That stupid blue-eye plastic surgeon is such an ass."

Andy regarded Maya with suspicion. "Stopped by to visit?"

"Not exactly. You two are grounded. Neither of you are allowed outside of the station as of now," Maya said.

"Why me? I didn't do anything!" Vic said. "I kept the respirator on!"

"Why was Andy first out of the car? Why did Andy go up the stairs to the bus?"

Vic was quiet for a couple of seconds.

"Is it because Andy, at 38 weeks pregnant, moves better than you do?" Maya said.

"I'm barely back on aid car! I was already on reception for the photo thing!" Vic was not happy.

"You're bigger than Andy. There, I said it. Your belly is bigger than hers, and I can't take this risk anymore. You are both on reception. You'll supervise drills with the rookies, you can work out gently in the gym, but you are on reception and 12 hours shifts."

"12-hour shifts?" Vic asked.

"Yes, you can work Mondays and Fridays on the desk with your classes Tuesday to Thursdays. Andy can pick any 12-hour on a day you aren't working."

"Please give me two more weeks of 24s. Then, I'll do 12. Please!" Vic requested.

"Why would I do that?"

"For more shifts will give me enough hours to complete the clinical portion of my paramedic class. It will also let me train up whoever you're putting on Aide Car next. Andy has been running the rookies without me, but with both of us gone, it'll put someone who hasn't done aide car much for six months in charge."

Maya considered her request, "Fine. No more than four more shifts. Frankel and I already have plans of extra coverage from D-shift while you are on maternity leave. We'll call them early, after your four shifts."

"Thank you, captain."

Andy's phone rang, playing 'Mo' Money, Mo' Problems. She answered it immediately. "Hey, Bobby. Yep, I'm fine. Just hanging out with Vic and Maya. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yes. Umm . . . no, I haven't had time to look at the listings. Yes, I know I don't have anything else to do, but I was busy getting exposed to measles. . . . Okay, I'll see you soon."

She hung up and addressed her friends, "Bobby's gonna be up in ten minutes. Wanna stay? He's going to make me look at house listings."

"Count me out," Vic said. "Ripley keeps suggesting more and more McMansions for us and three kids. I'd consider an alarm system and a dog, but he wants snipers, restricted air space, and a blur on Google maps."

"Hopefully the part with only two more weeks on shift will make him almost as happy as the last time he got to have sex with you at the station," Maya joked as Vic made an 'are you kidding' face.

"Don't leave me!" Andy tried again. "He'll want to talk about paint colors . . . and finishes for bathrooms and open floor plans."

"You're on your own," Maya directed Vic out of the two sets of doors, leaving Andy to her fate.

They stopped to watch the TV which showed a news conference from Francis's office with Ripley and Francis. It was continued coverage of the measles exposure and the actions FD, PD, and the Mayor's office was taking to work with the CDC and Washington Department of health. 

"Hmm," Maya said. "That's why she keeps her office so neat. It looks like a talk show."

"Yeah, Fitzpatrick would have hated it," Vic observed. "Too friendly and welcoming."

Speaking of friendly and welcoming, they ducked behind a wall. Sullivan passed by with a respirator and a six-inch binder of what appeared to be real estate listings. He didn't seem to upset, merely purposeful. 

Vic decided to send a text to Lucas: _Sully here. Titers pending. Headed back to the Station. Will be on permanent desk duty by week 26._

R: _Good._

They went back to the station. By the following morning, Vic got a call from Carina Deluca - she and Andy were immune to measles. No delivery this week.

Maya flipped her calendar open and marked off when Vic would move to reception. There was another notable date on the calendar first - Ryan Tanner's wedding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See, I didn't kill her (yet!). She's not allowed to go on any more calls right now! Vic has 2 more weeks.
> 
> I couldn't do a COVID story so I went with this instead. Honestly, it was planned well before COVID happened which showed how much more slowly I've been writing. Most of the stuff about measles in there is true, FYI - get vaccinated. There was a big measles outbreak in 2019.

**Author's Note:**

> (Click [ here](https://carinaalyce.com/sign-up-for-our-mailing-list/) if you are interested in joining the mailing list for those other projects.) 


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